Bye-bye, Biodiversity

According to a study published in the journal Conservation Biology, ‘Global warming ranks among the most serious threats to the planet’s biodiversity and, under some scenarios, may rival or exceed that due to deforestation’.

The study, researched and written by scientists in Canada, the United States and Australia, also claims that global warming will cause the extinction of thousands, or even tens of thousands, of the world’s species of flora and fauna over the decades to come.

‘Areas particularly vulnerable to climate change,’ it says, ‘include the tropical Andes, the Cape Floristic region (on the tip of South Africa), southwest Australia, and the Atlantic forests of Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina.’

‘This study provides even stronger scientific evidence that global warming will result in catastrophic species loss across the planet,’ said Jay Malcolm, an assistant forestry professor at the University of Toronto who is one of the authors of the study.

Source:
Conservation Biology