Study: Global Warming May Push 1 in 6 Species into Extinction
STORRS, Conn., May 2 (UPI) — An analysis published in Science journal claims that climate change may cause extinction in as many as 1 in 6 animal and plant species.
Author Mark Urban, ecologist at the University of Connecticut, wrote that risks of extinction for the earth’s flora and fauna will accelerate as global temperatures climb. South America, Australia and New Zealand are said to be especially effected.
“We have the choice,” he said, according to the New York Times. “The world can decide where on that curve they want the future Earth to be.”
Urban reportedly visited every climate extinction model ever published in order to come to holistic conclusions.
He found that 7.9 percent of species were predicted to become extinct from climate change.
“Even species not threatened directly by extinction could experience substantial changes in abundances, distributions, and species interactions, which in turn could affect ecosystems and their services to humans,” Urban wrote.
“Already, changes in species’ phenologies, range margins, and abundances are evident.”
