Climate Change to Trigger Extinction of 900 Bird Species by 2100
It has been predicted that by 2100, climate change could cause up to 30 percent of land-bird species to go extinct worldwide. This accounts for about 900 bird species.
A study which has brought forth worrisome facts analyses of extinction rates to incorporate the most recent climate change scenarios set forth earlier this year in the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore.
The researchers modeled changes to the elevation limits of the ranges of more than 8,400 species of land birds using 60 scenarios.
The scenarios consisted of various combinations of surface warming projections from the 2007 IPCC report, habitat loss estimates from the 2005 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (an evaluation of the planet’s ecosystems by 1,360 experts around the world), and several possibilities of shifts in elevation range limits.
The worst-case scenario of 6.4 degrees Celsius surface warming combined with extensive habitat loss produced the estimate of 30 percent of land bird species going extinct by 2100.
Increasing habitat loss aggravates the effects of climate change because organisms seeking more suitable conditions will be less likely to find intact habitats. Even with an intermediate 2.8 C warming, 400 to 550 land-bird extinctions are expected.
Additional threats include interactions between the rising temperatures and other environmental factors. The report suggests the entire world to take up measures against this slaughtering as this might prove costly later.
