THE well-known “Red List” that details which species are threatened with extinction is inaccurate, according to a new assessment. It concludes the list fails to reflect the true threat to species, by not taking full account of the threat posed by people.
The Red List, which is compiled by the World Conservation Union (IUCN), gauges a species’ risk of extinction mainly on the basis of its population size, rate of decline and geographic range. But Alexander Harcourt and Sean Parks at the University of California, Davis, argue that this is not enough. They compare an endangered species to a house…
