Lizard extinction study prompts global news coverage

Barry Sinervo. (photo by Jim MacKenzie)

A study led by biologist Barry Sinervo that links global lizard extinctions to climate change received international media attention last week. Sinervo was interviewed by reporters for print and broadcast media from around the world, providing coverage in Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Mexico, Spain, Sweden, and throughout the United States.

U.S. radio coverage included two National Public Radio programs, All Things Considered and Science Friday, Public Radio International's The World, and an in-depth interview with Sinervo on local public radio station KUSP's 7th Avenue Project. A crew from Bay Area television station KGO visited Sinervo's lab on campus and interviewed graduate student Elizabeth Bastiaans. International radio coverage included the BBC, ABC (Australia), and CBC (Canada).

Print coverage included stories in Time magazine and the Washington Post, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, San Francisco Chronicle, and San Jose Mercury News, all the major wire services, and foreign papers such as the Guardian, Telegraph, Independent, Sidney Morning Herald, and Calcutta Telegraph. Science news outlets covered the study, including Science, Nature, The Scientist, New Scientist, Science News, Australian Geographic, and National Geographic, and stories ran on numerous online news sites, including BBC News, ABC News, CBS News, and MSNBC.