The species awareness index as a conservation culturomics metric for public biodiversity awareness

Although threats to global biodiversity are well known, slowing current rates of biodiversity loss remains a challenge. The Aichi targets set out 20 goals on which the international community should act to alleviate biodiversity decline, 1 of which (Target 1) aims to raise public awareness of the importance of biodiversity. Although conventional indicators for Target 1 are of low spatial and temporal coverage, conservation culturomics metrics show how biodiversity awareness can be quantified at the global scale. Following methods used for the Living Planet Index, we devised a species awareness index (SAI) to measure change in species awareness based on Wikipedia views. We calculated this index at the page level for 41,197 species listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) across 10 Wikipedia languages and >2 billion views from 1 July 2015 to 30 March 2020. Bootstrapped indices for the page-level SAI showed that overall awareness of biodiversity increased marginally over time, although there were differences among taxonomic classes and languages. Among taxonomic classes, overall awareness increased fastest for reptiles and slowest for amphibians. Among languages, overall species awareness increased fastest for Japanese and slowest for Chinese and German users. Although awareness of species as a whole increased and was significantly higher for traded species, from January 2016 through January 2020, change in awareness appeared not to be strongly related to whether the species is traded or is a pollinator. As a data source for public biodiversity awareness, the SAI could be integrated into the Conservation International Biodiversity Engagement Indicator.     

Gender differences in DUI offenders in treatment in Texas

OBJECTIVE: This is a study of 8,464 adult women and 21,155 adult males who entered substance abuse treatment in Texas between 2000 and 2005. Participants were either on probation for driving under the influence (DUI), were referred to treatment by DUI probation, or had been arrested for DUI in the past year. METHODS: The female and male clients were compared on demographic characteristics, substance use patterns, DSM-IV diagnoses, and levels of impairment. T tests and chi square tests were used to determine significance and multivariate logistic regression identified predictors of completing treatment and being abstinent at follow-up. RESULTS: The proportion of females who were sent to treatment as a result of DUI increased from 27% in 2000 to 32% in 2005. Females were significantly more likely than males to be White (73% vs. 56%), to have used substances a shorter period of time (17 vs. 19 years), to be seeking custody to regain their children (11% vs. 2%), to meet the DSM criteria for drug dependence (32% vs. 23%), to have injected drugs (31% vs. 23%), to have used substances daily (42% vs. 40%), to have a depressive disorder (16% vs. 7%) or bipolar disorder (12% vs. 5%), and to be have been in treatment before (60% vs. 49%). In contrast, males were more likely to be alcohol dependent (49% vs. 44%). Females were less likely to complete treatment (67% vs. 72%) and reported significantly more days of problems on the 6 domains of the ASI at both admission and at 60-day follow-up. Furthermore, at follow-up, they were more likely to be living with someone who abused alcohol or used drugs (9% vs.7%). CONCLUSIONS: Although females comprised only 29% of the DUI treatment admissions, they were more impaired and experienced more problems than their male counterparts. The findings indicate that additional resources, including treatment for co-occurring mental health problems and living in sober households, may be keys to helping these women achieve abstinence and prevent additional DUI episodes.     

Wilderness forms and their implications for global environmental policy and conservation

With the intention of securing industry-free land and seascapes, protecting wilderness entered international policy as a formal target for the first time in the zero draft of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework under the Convention on Biological Diversity. Given this increased prominence in international policy, it is timely to consider the extent to which the construct of wilderness supports global conservation objectives. We evaluated the construct by overlaying recently updated cumulative human pressure maps that offer a global-scale delineation of industry-free land as wilderness with maps of carbon stock, species richness, and ground travel time from urban centers. Wilderness areas took variable forms in relation to carbon stock, species richness, and proximity to urban centers, where 10% of wilderness areas represented high carbon and species richness, 20% low carbon and species richness, and 3% high levels of remoteness (>48 h), carbon, and species richness. Approximately 35% of all remaining wilderness in 2013 was accessible in <24 h of travel time from urban centers. Although the construct of wilderness can be used to secure benefits in specific contexts, its application in conservation must account for contextual and social implications. The diverse characterization of wilderness under a global environmental conservation lens shows that a nuanced framing and application of the construct is needed to improve understanding, communication, and retention of its variable forms as industry-free places.