Children born today will see literally thousands of animals disappear in their lifetime, as global food webs collapse

Thu, 5 Jan 2023 19:37:49 +1100

Andrew Pam <xanni [at] glasswings.com.au>

Andrew Pam
<https://theconversation.com/children-born-today-will-see-literally-thousands-of-animals-disappear-in-their-lifetime-as-global-food-webs-collapse-196286>

"Climate change is one of the main drivers of species loss globally. We know
more plants and animals will die as heatwaves, bushfires, droughts and other
natural disasters worsen.

But to date, science has vastly underestimated the true toll climate change and
habitat destruction will have on biodiversity. That’s because it has largely
neglected to consider the extent of “co-extinctions”: when species go extinct
because other species on which they depend die out.

Our new research shows 10% of land animals could disappear from particular
geographic areas by 2050, and almost 30% by 2100. This is more than double
previous predictions. It means children born today who live to their 70s will
witness literally thousands of animals disappear in their lifetime, from
lizards and frogs to iconic mammals such as elephants and koalas.

But if we manage to dramatically reduce carbon emissions globally, we could
save thousands of species from local extinction this century alone."

Cheers,
       *** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net               Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/                 Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/            Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/               Manager, Serious Cybernetics

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