2021: when the link between the climate and biodiversity crises became clear

Looking back on a year in which the Age of Extinction reported on everything from summits to species loss, solutions and community involvement

• Read more in our series Biodiversity: what happened next?

Bats sweltering in their boxes, polar bears and narwhals using up to four times as much energy to survive, birds starving as Turkey's lakes dry up, and unique island species at high risk of extinction as the planet warms. If there was ever any doubt about the inextricable link between the climate emergency and the biodiversity crisis, those doubts were well and truly dispelled in 2021.

The science is clear: climate, biodiversity and human health are fully interdependent," Frans Timmermans, the European Commission vice-president who heads the European Green Deal; Achim Steiner, of the UN Development Programme; and Sandrine Dixson-Decleve, of the Club of Rome, wrote before the Cop26 climate conference.