Aleksej
Janicijevic
One
in six of world's species faces extinction due to climate change – study
This article by
the guardian basically weighs out the effects of what current rates of global
warming will bring us in the relatively near future, the basic statistic that
it is focused on is the idea that one sixth of the world’s species will be
extinct by the end of the century if the global warming rate is as predicted (4
degrees Celsius).
The article warns
that Australia, New Zealand and South America will be the biggest target of the
extinction due to a large number of species being exclusive to their areas,
which makes them more prone to extinction, another contributing factor to
Australia and New Zealand being so prone to extinction is the fact that the
animals have no place to migrate in search of a more suitable climate.
The study used
analyses 131 existing study on the topic, to reach the conclusion that at
current rates we will lose a sixth of species, the importance of this study is
that it is released in a time period prior to a big carbon emission control
summit in Paris, in which world leaders will try to forge an agreement to limit
carbon emissions. The goal of these meetings is to keep global warming within
its safe zone, which is 2c, the issue however is the original deal struck in
the summit won’t be able to do that on its own; rather governments would have
to take initiative on their own in order to reach to safe zone. No matter the
effects of the summit, what has occurred so far in regard to climate change
will inevitably take its toll on our species diversity, since even if we
achieved the safe zone of global warming it is predicted 5% of species will die
out.
Another point to
take into consideration is that even the species that may not be extinct will
still suffer consequences in regard to their population and distribution, and
these effects are not only significant from an environmental point of view but
also from the potential issues that could arise on a economic level if the extinctions
had a knock on effect and created greater harm to the systems in place in
nature which we rely on.
A positive side
is that since we understand how long the extinctions may take, it is possible
to intervene with some conservation efforts to help the animals that are at
risk adapt, nonetheless, it is an indicator that it is due time for some
legitimate changes to occur since we are reaching a very dangerous zone in
regard to the risks we are handling.
This study
emphasizes much of what we already know, but adds a sense of urgency and a call
to action to all of us, and helps us understand that the consequences are very
real and very present today, thus it is vital that we take them seriously,
since we could be living with the complications of environmental abuse sooner
than we believed. What I personally like about this article is that it uses
statistics in order to truly portray the complexity of what may potentially
occur, and also takes varying views of the topic, such as an economic
standpoint, which means it could appeal to a wider group of people to all take
action rather than exclusively those who associate themselves with conservation
and environmental efforts. Also, it is important that the article gives the
reader an understanding of the upcoming summit, as well as how important it is
for it to be successful, since there could be dire consequences on all of us.
Overall, I think that this article shows us that we have already done a lot of
damage, but there is no more time to shift reparation attempts to the future,
and there is no time to spare when it is our environment and more specifically
the biodiversity of our earth at stake.
No comments:
Post a Comment