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.
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.
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.
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.
'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.'
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
'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'.
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)
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.
'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'.
'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.
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…
BREAKING: mass media stay silent as climate scientists all agree economic growth means Earth's species face the threat of dire 1.75- 2°C of global warming by the 2030s 🧵
1. Conservative estimates imply threat of >1.7°C by the 2030s.
James Hansen warns of 2°C.
'This high rate of warming is caused by a combination of greenhouse gas emissions being close to an all-time high and a reduction in the cooling impacts of aerosols'carbonbrief.org/guest-post-tra…
2. Conservative projections show 2°C as early as 2037. Species like humans reach limits of adaptation at this point. (Tropical ecosystems wrecked at 1.5°C.)
Change this Extinction Economy now to protect species and everyone now while it's still too late. carbonbrief.org/analysis-what-…
2. 'Planetary boundaries represent thresholds in major Earth system processes that are sensitive to human activity and control global-scale habitability and stability
critical oxygen thresholds are being approached at rates comparable to other.. processes'
An amazing news story totally ignored by state-corporate media: according to even the most conservative and optimistic consensus assumptions there had to be 'immediate action' years ago at the very latest with emissions peaking and falling by now to avoid utterly catastrophic 2C.
BREAKING: scientists warn we're beginning to feel the effects of a geologically instantaneous 21st century shift into extreme and unsurvivable conditions 🧵
1. 'We are starting to feel the effects of transitioning to a hothouse climate (ΔT +4-5 °C) in a geological instant'
The global change happening now is potentially like the Permian extinction which occurred in just a few centuries.
2. "In my view it is impossible to survive that sort of change (4°C by 2100). That is beyond human physiology. But that is the trajectory we are on now.. No matter what we do with all the whiz-bang technology.. physiologically we cant survive that."
Even establishment climate scientists who organise consensus views (and often downplay catastrophe) show we can anticipate 2.1°C by (2035- ) 2050 at which point impacts become too severe to manage.