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Sep 13, 2021 35 tweets 12 min read Read on X
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… Image
'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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More from @ClimateBen

Apr 30
BREAKING: scientists say global CO₂ emissions in the first months of 2024 remain as high as ever confirming the neoliberal energy transition project is a failure set to end in mass death and extinction without immediate economic system change 🧵
1. Capitalism means rapid mass extinction due to biodiversity destruction. Abrupt climate change is just one compounding factor in extinction catastrophe. Change this Extinction Economy now while it's still too late to protect species and everyone.

Thread
2. Emissions should've peaked and plummeted by 2015-2024 at the very latest to avoid the end of this world at 2/2.5°C according to scientists who assume ongoing economic growth. Mass media editors omit this reality. Only system change offers protection.
🧵
Read 4 tweets
Apr 6
BREAKING: staggered climate scientists warn anything is now possible (and they mean anything) after the biggest jump in temperature ever recorded anywhere on Earth occurs in the Antarctic
1. "if we had a 40C rise in the UK now.. that would be deadly for the population.”

Glaciologist Prof Martin Siegert, of the University of Exeter: “No one in our community thought that anything like this could ever happen."

“It is simply mind-boggling”

dumptheguardian.com/environment/20…
2. Capitalism means rapid mass extinction via biodiversity annihilation. Corporations have locked in the destruction of the planet as we knew it. Abrupt climate change is just one compounding factor in extinction catastrophe. Change this Extinction Economy.
Read 7 tweets
Apr 5
BREAKING: IPCC scientist reveals it's actually been years since their models first indicated the catastrophic global warming acceleration now happening was to be expected 🧵
1. The IPCC is still silent on it's own findings

a) models show the current catastrophic global warming acceleration of the 2020s was to be expected

Why wasn't this communicated back in 2018- 2022?


b) emissions should've peaked by ~2022 to avoid 3/3.5°Ccarbonbrief.org/factcheck-why-…
2. 'To keep global temperatures below 1.5C, 2C or even 2.5C, emissions must peak before 2025'

The IPCC still hasn't communicated this. It seems this is true for 3°C, too. Virtually the only mass media article that explained the situation back in 2022:
france24.com/en/environment…
Read 11 tweets
Apr 3
BREAKING: climate scientists confirm catastrophic accelerated warming set to hit this decade 🧵
1. 'we may expect an accelerated surface temperature warming in this decade'

'a positive EEI confirms the lag of the climate system in responding to forcing and implies that additional global warming will take place even without further forcing changes"
nature.com/articles/s4324…
Read 5 tweets
Apr 3
BREAKING: scientific community begins to confront widespread denial with team of distinguished scientists publishing a paper explicitly stating exploitative wealth-oriented capitalism must be replaced immediately as the extinction of 32- 70% of Earth's species in decades looms🧵
1/'a critical paradigm shift must occur that replaces exploitative, wealth-oriented capitalism with an economic model that prioritizes sustainability, resilience, and justice'

* increasing clarity on mandatory economic change

* flaws on carrying capacity
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/arti…
2/ The recent research cited in the paper agrees with previous studies showing that up to 40- 70% of species risk extinction.

Read 8 tweets
Mar 28
BREAKING: as Earth's major forests begin to collapse a new report shows 95% of companies behind catastrophic rapid industrial-scale deforestation have failed to take meaningful action since pledging to stop the destruction 10 years ago with a 2025 tipping point deadline looming🧵
1. Rainforests in SE Asia have hit tipping points. 20- 26% of the Amazon Rainforest is in a state of collapse

"The tipping point is not a future scenario but rather a stage already present"

Savannization is already taking place in both Brazil and Bolivia.commondreams.org/news/2022/09/0…
2. Climate scientist and Amazon Rainforest expert Carlos Nobre warns that deforestation across the whole of the Amazon must end by next year.

Read 7 tweets

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