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<ul class="summary-list"><li>The <keyword id="13868521" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="vaquita" source="Orion">vaquita</keyword> porpoise, down to 10 individuals left, can still survive.</li><li>Researchers found that the genetic makeup of the species is diverse enough to support recovery.</li></ul><p>The number of vaquita, a tiny, silver porpoise that lives exclusively in <keyword id="11933000" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="mexico" source="Orion">Mexico</keyword>'s Gulf of California, is down to 10 remaining in the wild. </p><p>But the world's smallest and most endangered marine mammal may be able to keep its numbers up, even with inbreeding, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, determined in a <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abm1742">study published in Science</a>. </p><p>The team analyzed the genomes of 20 tissue samples and found that the genetic makeup of the population was diverse enough to make a recovery. This may be because the population had been a smaller one to begin with, with 570 existing in the wild in 1997.</p><p>Having a small population with a less diverse genetic makeup usually increases the risk of mutations that can harm a population and put their survival at risk. However, with the vaquitas, their small numbers may have helped to "purge" harmful genetic traits from spreading. </p><p>"They're essentially the marine equivalent of an island species," <a href="https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/endangered-vaquita-porpoise-is-not-doomed">said co-lead author Jacqueline Robinson.</a>"The vaquitas' naturally low abundance has allowed them to gradually purge highly deleterious recessive gene variants that might negatively affect their health under inbreeding."</p><p>The vaquita's main threat to survival is bycatch mortality. </p><p>Vaquita porpoises often get caught and die in gillnets, vertical nets that hang down into the <keyword id="12127110" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="ocean" source="Orion">ocean</keyword>. Fishers in Mexico illegally use these gillnets to catch totoaba – an endangered fish – and shrimp.</p><p>The researchers noted that if gillnet deaths were to cease entirely, there was a high probability that the porpoise would not go extinct. If gillnet deaths decrease only by 80%, the likelihood of species survival drops dramatically.</p><p>"[The vaquita porpoise] represents a unique evolutionary lineage — there is no similar species anywhere in the world — and its loss would rob the ecosystem of an important predator adapted to this unique ecosystem," said senior co-author Robert Wayne.</p>

Only 10 vaquita porpoises remain in the wild, but scientists say the world's smallest marine mammal could still make a comeback

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The much-anticipated sequel to "Aquaman" arrives in theaters on Friday. </li><li>So far, film critics are not fans, likening it to a deep-fried Filet-O-Fish sandwich. </li></ul><h2><strong>Nobody's happy to be there.</strong></h2><div type="image" title="Jason Momoa as Arthur Curry and Amber Heard as Mera in &quot;Aquaman.&quot;" height="1350" width="2424" msid="106192900" hostid="261" sizebytes="148576"></div><p>"Did anyone involved with the making of "<a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="https://www.insider.com/aquaman-2-trailer-controversy-explained-2023-9">Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom</a>" even want to make an "Aquaman" movie? Because it sure doesn't feel like that's the case. Seriously, when even Jason Momoa — a guy who whose entire vibe is "I'm happy to be here" — visibly struggles to wring any sense of enjoyment out of a scene, there's a real problem." — Liz Shannon Miller, <a target="_blank" href="https://consequence.net/2023/12/aquaman-2-review-jason-momoa/">Consequence</a><br /><br />"You can tell from every second of the sequel just how disinterested DC Studios is in this film and in the future of this character. It must've been a real chore for them to finish the choppy follow-up to the popular 2018 original." — Johnny Oleksinski, <a target="_blank" href="https://nypost.com/2023/12/21/entertainment/aquaman-and-the-lost-kingdom-review-good-riddance-to-the-dceu/">The New York Post</a></p><h2><strong>Did no one think of the — or even <em>a</em> — plot?</strong></h2><div type="image" title="aquaman" height="1046" width="1840" msid="106192901" hostid="261" sizebytes="153248"></div><p>"The plotting is undercut by a dull villain (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is a brilliant talent, but "possessed by an ancient god" just isn't that compelling dramatically) and stakes that feel flat. The world-building, when it comes to Atlantis (or any of the ocean kingdoms), is pretty much non-existent. This is a movie where the character who undergoes the most significant change is Randall Park's eventually-less-sinister scientist. Not, you know, the guy with his name in the title." — Liz Shannon Miller, <a target="_blank" href="https://consequence.net/2023/12/aquaman-2-review-jason-momoa/">Consequence</a></p><p>"Not one part of this movie — the effects, the storyline, the emotional core — works. Everything is recycled from other superhero movies. It's time to give the genre an at-sea burial." J. Don Birnam, <a target="_blank" href="https://abovetheline.com/2023/12/21/aquaman-lost-kingdom-review/">Above the Line</a></p><h2><strong>It's a veritable trainwreck of a film that 'spectacularly misfires'</strong></h2><div type="image" title="Orm and Aquaman in &quot;Aquaman 2.&quot;" height="1125" width="2000" msid="106192903" hostid="261" sizebytes="69544"></div><p>"'Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom' spectacularly misfires as the final smoking embers of the Snyderverse's last hurrah. It is a wacky nail in the coffin of a DC superhero vision that has been clearly abandoned by corporate masters.— Julian Roman, <a target="_blank" href="https://movieweb.com/aquaman-and-the-lost-kingdom-review/">Movieweb</a></p><p>"Rife with lazy one-liners that wouldn't pass muster in a sitcom's writers' room, with gags like baby Arthur Jr. urinating in his dad's face during a diaper change, a bit the movie loves so much it happens twice." — Alonso Duralde, <a target="_blank" href="https://thefilmverdict.com/aquaman-and-the-lost-kingdom-film-review/">The Film Verdict</a></p><p>"The Aquaman franchise is just flatlining, floating through the dreary depths like the kind of discarded plastic bag which is going to choke the last remaining vaquita porpoise." — Peter Bradshaw, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/dec/21/aquaman-and-the-lost-kingdom-review-jason-momoa-terrible-sequel-pollutes-the-dcu-ocean?CMP=twt_a-culture_b-gdnculture">The Guardian</a></p><p>"In fact, there's no cause of any kind to pay attention to this lavishly hectic and cacophonous washout of a follow-up, whose plot is nonsense, visuals are garish, and performances are the wooden sort born from having talented actors pretend to be underwater and interacting with fanciful creatures on green screen sets. It's a franchise farewell so underwhelming, nary a tear will be shed over its passing." — Nick Schager, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/aquaman-2-review-actually-the-worst-dc-movie-yet">The Daily Beast</a></p><p>"'Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom' is a 'fine' farewell to the DCEU. While far from a mind-blowing send-off, it encapsulates the essence of the cinematic universe - a journey filled with few triumphs, many missed opportunities, and incomprehensible disasters." — Manuel São Bento, <a target="_blank" href="https://fandomwire.com/aquaman-and-the-lost-kingdom-review/">FandomWire</a></p><h2>There's a distinct lack of Amber Heard's character Mera in the movie</h2><div type="image" title="Aquaman" height="730" width="1296" msid="106192906" hostid="261" sizebytes="55496"></div><p>"For reasons that we can only guess at, most of Heard's scenes have been edited out, so while she shows up every now and then in a skintight, low-cut bodysuit, she has so little to say and do that she might as well not be there at all. In essence, Heard is seen but not heard." — Nicholas Barber, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20231221-aquaman-and-the-lost-kingdom-review-never-attempts-anything-original-or-honest">BBC</a></p><p>"Mera has been demoted from a powerful hero with a powerful personality to a woman who has babies, folds laundry and sits dutifully by Aquaman's side. She barely speaks and when she does it's to dole out exposition or remind us that yes, technically she's still in the film. Either Heard's role was awkwardly cut down in post, as has widely been speculated, or "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom" just has an underwritten and sexist screenplay. Possibly both, but either way it's a huge distraction and it undermines not just her character but Aquaman's as well." — William Bibbiani, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.thewrap.com/aquaman-2-review-jason-momoa/">The Wrap</a></p><h2><strong>And yet! Some critics still found the final chapter of the DCEU entertaining</strong></h2><div type="image" title="Aquaman holding his son in Aquaman 2 trailer" height="1440" width="2724" msid="106192907" hostid="261" sizebytes="70352"></div><p>"Wan never pulls off an action scene as virtuosic as the leaping-across-rooftops fight in the first 'Aquaman,' but there are some good ones in here, choreographed, framed and edited with Wan's characteristic clarity even when the camera is shaking like an astronaut during liftoff." — Matt Zoller Seitz, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/aquaman-and-the-lost-kingdom-movie-review-2023">RogerEbert.com</a></p><p>"Say what you will about what this now-concluded chapter in DC cinematic history deserves... Arthur Curry going out on his own terms with a complete disinterest in wHaT iT aLl MeAnS fOr ThE fRaNcHiSe is both incredibly on-brand and objectively funny." — Amelia Emberwing, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.ign.com/articles/aquaman-and-the-lost-kingdom-review-jason-momoa-dceu">IGN Movies</a></p><p>"A pleasant, largely-entertaining time with a character whose big-screen portrayal was one of the DCEU's rare successes. Thanks to its free-wheeling attitude and committed ensemble cast, it closes a cinematic chapter in a silly, but satisfying-enough way. " — Jenna Anderson, <a target="_blank" href="https://comicbook.com/movies/news/aquaman-and-the-lost-kingdom-review-a-silly-and-suitable-swan-song-for-the-dceu/">ComicBook.com</a></p>

The 'Aquaman 2' reviews are in, and it might be 'time to give the genre an at-sea burial,' say some critics

After a summer of climatic extremes across the world, a new <keyword id="2767792" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="un-university" source="Orion">UN University</keyword> report looks at how the right solutions can reduce the risk of such hazards turning into full-blown disasters or, in some cases, eliminate them altogether.<br />As climate change continues to accelerate and its impacts are increasingly felt, the challenges for disaster risk reduction in the future will only grow and be intensified by the impacts of nature and biodiversity loss.<br />Solutions are already being implemented around the world to address risks, but interconnectivity is not yet placed at the heart of solution design and implementation.<br />"Interconnected Disaster Risks Report 2021/2022" by the United Nations University - Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) analysed 10 disasters from around the world, which were selected to be representative of a larger global issue, to identify shared root causes and drivers of disasters, and came up with eight solutions which can prevent or reduce a number of disaster risks.<br />They are: Let nature work (coexist with natural processes); Innovate (using new ideas); Work together (enhancing collaboration); Secure livelihoods (establish safety nets to protect people); Consume sustainably (modify our consumption patterns); <keyword id="69437" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="strengthen" source="Orion">Strengthen</keyword> governance (increasing capacity of institutions); Plan for risks (being risk-aware in designing and building infrastructure), and <keyword id="48185" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="boost" source="Orion">Boost</keyword> early warning (enhancing our capacity to predict and communicate risks).<br />In the past year alone, disasters caused the loss of around 10,000 human lives and over $280 billion in damages worldwide.<br />"The good news is that just as the disasters are interconnected, so are the solutions," stated Jack O'Connor, Senior Scientist at UNU-EHS and Lead Author of the Interconnected Disaster Risks report.<br />"One type of solution can prevent or reduce a number of different disaster risks, and through our research, we were able to identify solutions which can prevent or drastically reduce the impacts of disasters to help us save lives and avoid costly damages."<br />Launched two months ahead of the UN Climate Conference (COP27) in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, the report demonstrates that by looking below the surface and identifying the drivers that cause disasters to develop, such as deforestation or urbanization, we can decrease the risk of disasters before they occur.<br />For example, deforestation leads to soil erosion, where a lack of trees and roots means that there is no protection from wind and rain and the soil is easily washed or blown away.<br />This creates ideal conditions for multiple disasters, such as the devastating landslides during the Haiti earthquake, the formation of sandstorms in southern Madagascar and the sedimentation of water reservoirs contributing to the Taiwan drought, leading to lives lost or people's homes and income opportunities being destroyed.<br />By applying the solution "Let nature work", we can harness nature's processes to reduce hazards; for example, by restoring forests to stabilize the soil and prevent land degradation.<br />The solutions identified in the report are most powerful when implemented in "solution packages", where multiple solutions work together to address the different elements of each interconnected disaster.<br />For example, a solution package to address the looming extinction of the vaquita is to work with local fisher communities to co-manage conservation areas, innovate and implement more sustainable fishing methods, raise awareness for sustainable consumption, and to enforce regulations to prevent harmful overfishing and illegal trade.<br />This solution package has a better chance of addressing the problem than if any solutions are implemented in isolation.<br />"The research on this is detailed. Without investing and scaling up smart solutions, the disasters of 2021/2022 are just the beginning of a new normal. The responsibility to make changes rests with all parts of society: the private sector, governments, regional and local decision-makers, but also with us as individuals. All of our actions have consequences for all of us. In an interconnected world, we are all part of the solution," <keyword id="14867714" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="zita-sebesvari" source="Orion">Zita Sebesvari</keyword>, Deputy Director of UNU-EHS and Lead Author of the Interconnected Disaster Risks report.<br />

Right solutions can diminish disaster consequences: UN University report

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Only 10 vaquita porpoises remain in the wild, but scientists say the world's smallest marine mammal could still make a comeback

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The 'Aquaman 2' reviews are in, and it might be 'time to give the genre an at-sea burial,' say some critics

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Right solutions can diminish disaster consequences: UN University report

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