BREAKING: Earth's 8.7 million species call for immediate system change
60% of primate species are threatened with extinction, 75% are declining.
Main threat: habitat destruction due to logging/agriculture.
Hunting, road construction, oil & gas extraction, mining, pollution, disease, and climate change are also key threats. theconversation.com/60-of-primate-…
40-60% of tree species are threatened with extinction.
dumptheguardian.com/environment/20…
more than half of species are only found in one country, suggesting vulnerability to potential threats, such as deforestation from extreme weather events or human activity.
bbc.com/news/science-e…
50% of amphibian species are threatened with extinction.
nationalgeographic.com/animals/articl…
40% or more of plant species are threatened with extinction.
'this is just what we already know about. Researchers say there are huge gaps in our knowledge of plants, and more work is needed to assess the conservation status of more species.'beta.ctvnews.ca/national/clima…
40% of shark and ray species are threatened with extinction.
ecowatch.com/shark-species-…
40% of invertebrate pollinators are threatened with extinction.
newsweek.com/40-percent-bee…
>33% of marine mammals are threatened with extinction.
un.org/sustainabledev…
33% of insect species are threatened with extinction, 41% are in decline.
climateandcapitalism.com/2020/06/10/ind…
30% of freshwater reptile species are threatened with extinction.
20% of all reptile species are threatened with extinction.
science.time.com/2013/02/15/rep…
14% of birds are threatened with extinction, 40% are in decline.
40%-65% of N. American birds are threatened with extinction by likely 1.5°C-3°C of warming, suggesting extreme danger for species globally.
e360.yale.edu/digest/climate…
ourworldindata.org/birds
e360.yale.edu/digest/forty-p…
10%-60% of fish species are threatened with extinction depending on global warming levels this century (1.5°C to 4°C-5°C).
dumptheguardian.com/environment/20…
50%-55% of all species are threatened with extinction by increasingly likely 2.5°C-4°C
Extreme warming scenarios, 55% of species lost:
edition.cnn.com/2020/02/21/wea…
Perhaps half of all species will be vulnerable to thermal infertility:
phys.org/news/2021-05-i…
qz.com/1280872/keepin…
We are in an abrupt climate-extinction experiment during ultra-destructive capitalism/imperialism.
It will never be too late to try to protect species and everybody by aiming to limit the damage via rapid, profound system change.
Thread:
At least a quarter of the world’s estimated 8.7 million species might already be on the move, experts have warned, pushed out of their habitats by the changing climate and human activities.
18% of the world’s plant species & 22% of mammals will go at 2°C.
euronews.com/green/2020/11/…
Climatically determined geographic range losses of >50% are projected in
* 49% of insects, 44% of plants, and 26% of vertebrates at 3.2°C
* 18% of insects, 16% of plants, 8% of vertebrates at 2°C
* 6% of insects, 8% of plants, 4% of vertebrates at 1.5°C
science.org/doi/full/10.11…
'Our findings strongly suggest that where species can survive in nature is determined by the temperature at which males become sterile, not the lethal temperature.
..perhaps half of all species will be vulnerable to thermal infertility.'
So, at 1.5C-2.5C?phys.org/news/2021-05-i…
A common fingerprint of a warmer world is a range shift..
80% of relevant studies found fingerprints among species, from grasses to trees and molluscs to mammals.
A recent review found 8-50% of all species will be threatened by climate change as a result.theconversation.com/climate-change…
Earth may be heading for far more extinctions than previously anticipated
2℃ dramatically reduces coral sperm bundle production/egg size
Salinity, chemicals, poor nutrition may compound thermal infertility
Do findings extrapolate to mammals like humans?theconversation.com/fly-infertilit…
Human society is yet to appreciate the implications of unprecedented species redistribution for life on Earth. Even if greenhouse gas emissions stopped today, responses required in human systems to adapt to the most serious effects would be massive. science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…
“Say there are 100 species [of fungi] that cycle carbon through a forest. Can we lose one of them? Ten of them? 50? 60? Maybe we can lose 99 of them. How many species can we afford to lose before we reach a tipping point, and we’re in some sort of trouble?”nationalgeographic.com/environment/ar…
Ecologists estimate that 15%- 37% of plant & animal species will go extinct as a direct result of the rapidly changing climate. But current models don't account for the complexities of impacted ecosystems so these extinction rates are likely underestimated.news.arizona.edu/story/climate-…
'34% of animals and 57% of plants' will lose over half their habitat by 2080 if temperatures rise 4°C
estimates are “probably conservative” as rising extreme weather, disease, and pests aren't accounted for in the study
humans can't adapt to 4°C impacts
news.mongabay.com/2013/05/climat…
'We have already observed impacts of climate change on agriculture. We have assessed the amount of climate change we can adapt to. There’s a lot we can’t adapt to even at 2C. At 4C the impacts are very high and we cannot adapt to them.'
theconversation.com/ipcc-expert-wr…
It looks likely there's much we can't adapt to at 1.5/1.75°C (see 1.25°C impacts now).
We must try to limit the doom, protect species. The answers lie in the knowledge & wisdom of indigenous communities, not industrialised western 'civilzation'.
Thread:
From 2008:
medium confidence that approximately 20-30% of species assessed so far are likely to be at increased risk of extinction if increases in global average warming exceed 1.5-2.5°C (relative to 1980-1999)
3.5°C extinction risk for 40-70% of species
grist.org/article/media-…
Intensive agriculture identified as the main driver for insect declines in Europe. Main culprits in other parts of the world: climate change & deforestation.
Non-climatic threats plus 1.6°C-2°C by the 2030s? Extinction hell.
Economic system change now.
m.dw.com/en/how-to-stop…
'Ten to twenty percent of the world’s terrestrial bird species could be threatened with extinction by 2100 due to climate change and habitat destruction'.
From 2007
news.mongabay.com/2007/06/10-20-…
15% of world’s 10,000 bird species extinct/committed to extinction by 2100 (business as usual)
'things are getting worse, so this number is likely to be higher, as many as 2 out of 5 bird species
up to 30% of land birds may go extinct by 2100'
July 2008
news.mongabay.com/2008/07/birds-…
'Even under the most optimistic scenarios, roughly 10 percent of parasite species will go extinct by 2070. In the most dire version of events, fully one-third of all parasites could vanish.
This kind of die-off would have myriad unfortunate consequences.'
smithsonianmag.com/science-nature…
Economic growth continues to make global warming of 1.8°C - 2.4°C and rising by 2040 or so look unavoidable.
'Globally, the percentage of species at high risk of extinction will be 9%-14% at 1.5C, 10%-18% at 2C, 12%-29% at 3.0C..'
carbonbrief.org/scientists-rea…
Local extinctions are already widespread at 1°C - 1.5°C.
Many global extinctions are anticipated.
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