Warming May Threaten 37% of Species by 2050

[Manix]

<snip>


In the first study of its kind, researchers in a range of habitats including northern Britain, the wet tropics of northeastern Australia and the Mexican desert said yesterday that global warming at currently predicted rates will drive 15 to 37 percent of living species toward extinction by mid-century.

Dismayed by their results, the researchers called for "rapid implementation of technologies" to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and warned that the scale of extinctions could climb much higher because of mutually reinforcing interactions between climate change and habitat destruction caused by agriculture, invasive species and other factors.

"The midrange estimate is that 24 percent of plants and animals will be committed to extinction by 2050," said ecologist Chris Thomas of Britain's University of Leeds. "We're not talking about the occasional extinction -- we're talking about 1.25 million species. It's a massive number."


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63153-2004Jan7.html

[rumguy]

1. wait...we need more study

thanks a lot, rethugs, for turning your back on the planet.

[PennyLane]

2. Bush's Legacy n/t

[theHandpuppet]

3. Perhaps its time....

That some of the RW Christian pulpit-pounders who have declared GWB "appointed by God" should really start preaching on behalf of saving this planet, its species and its environment. If, acccording to the Bible, God granted man dominion over the earth then he also assigned human beings the *responsibility* to care for his creation.

Of course, those who think GWB has been appointed by God probably also believe the rapture is imminent so there's no need to be the least bit concerned about this abhorrent befouling of the earth.

[Atlant]

4. It only matters to most folks if the species it threatens are Republican.

Maybe someone ought to take the Red/Blue map and overlay
it with the "altitude above Sea Level" grid?

Atlant