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Biodiversity scientists must fight the creeping rise of extinction denial

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 4, pages 1440–1443 (2020) Cite this article

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Efforts by conservation scientists to draw public attention to the biodiversity crisis are increasingly met with denialist rhetoric. We summarize some of the methods used by denialists to undermine scientific evidence on biodiversity loss, and outline pathways forward for the scientific community to counter misinformation.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Natural Sciences, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK

    Alexander C. Lees

  2. Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Alexander C. Lees

  3. WWF-Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Simon Attwood

  4. The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, Maccarese, Italy

    Simon Attwood

  5. Setor de Ecologia, Universidade Federal de Lavras, Lavras, Brazil

    Jos Barlow

  6. Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK

    Jos Barlow

  7. CIBIO, Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Jos Barlow

  8. Parque das Aves, Foz do Iguaçu, Paraná, Brazil

    Ben Phalan

  9. Universidade Federal da Bahia, Salvador, Brazil

    Ben Phalan

Authors
  1. Alexander C. Lees
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  2. Simon Attwood
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  3. Jos Barlow
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  4. Ben Phalan
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Contributions

A.C.L., S.A., J.B. and B.P. all contributed to the writing of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alexander C. Lees.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Lees, A.C., Attwood, S., Barlow, J. et al. Biodiversity scientists must fight the creeping rise of extinction denial. Nat Ecol Evol 4, 1440–1443 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-01285-z

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