Within Decade, Planet’s Natural World Facing Largest Mass Extinction Event Since Dinosaurs
Latest analysis by World Wildlife Fund warns humanity—possible “victim of it own lifestyle”—might ultimately be added to list of threatened species.
JULIA CONLEY December 30, 2021
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Endangered_arctic_-_starving_polar_bear.jpg
Increasingly dire ecological damage and severe impacts of the climate crisis are pushing the natural world towards a mass extinction event unparalleled since the age of the dinosaurs, conservationists in Germany warned this week, with humanity possibly facing self-annihilation if behaviors do not change.
Releasing its annual “Winners and Losers” list on Wednesday, the World Wildlife Fund’s German branch said 40,000 of the 142,500 species listed on the Red List of Threatened Species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) are “threatened with extinction.”
“If the earth is sick, so will the people [be], because we depend on vital ecosystems and biodiversity for our own safe and healthy life.”
The Red List is now longer than it has ever been since the IUCN began cataloging threatened species in 1964.
More than 40% of amphibians, 27% of shark and ray species, a third of reef building corals, and more than a quarter of all mammals on the Red List are threatened with extinction.
At the current rate of species loss, “around one million species could go extinct within the next decade—which would be the largest mass extinction event since the end of the dinosaur age,” WWF Germany said in a statement.
With planet-heating atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions reaching a record high this year—contributing to drought, habitat loss, extreme weather, and health problems in humans as well as other species—the organization noted that humans should view the extinction crisis as one that could affect them directly.
“Species conservation is no longer just about defeating an environmental problem, but is rather about the question of whether or not humanity will eventually end up on the Red List in an endangered category—and thereby become a victim of its own lifestyle,” WWF Germany director Eberhard Brandes said.
“If the earth is sick, so will the people [be],” he added, “because we depend on vital ecosystems and biodiversity for our own safe and healthy life.”
The “losers” on the WWF’s list include the polar bear, which is already suffering from the erosion of its Arctic habitat as the northern region becomes warmer. The Arctic Ocean could be completely free of ice by 2035 at the current rate of loss, making it increasingly difficult for the bears to find food.
Sharks and rays also made the list, the result of overfishing, habitat loss, and the climate crisis. A third of all sharks and rays in the oceans were classified as threatened in 2021, the WWF said.
African forest elephants have been considered “critically endangered” for the first time this year, as their population in Central and West Africa has plummeted by 86% in the past three decades.
The inclusion of 40,000 species on the IUCN’s list of threatened species represents a major acceleration of biodiversity loss. In 2010, 17,300 species were considered to be under threat, according to The Guardian.
The WWF’s list of “winners” this year includes bearded vultures, which have benefited from a resettlement program in the last 30 years that’s resulted in more than 300 of the birds now living in the Alpine region; the Iberian lynx, whose population has increased more than tenfold in the past 18 years; and Siamese crocodiles in Cambodia. Eight young crocodiles were found by researchers this year, marking the first time in more than a decade that the species has reproduced in nature.
“The winners of the list show that there are still opportunities for species protection,” said Brandes. “If we implement effective nature conservation measures, we can protect plants, animals and, ultimately, the climate.”
From https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/12/30/within-decade-planets-natural-world-facing-largest-mass-extinction-event-dinosaurs licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Climate change: UN emissions gap report a ‘thundering wake-up call’
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-59049770
National plans to cut carbon fall far short of what’s needed to avert dangerous climate change, according to the UN Environment Programme.
Their Emissions Gap report says country pledges will fail to keep the global temperature under 1.5C this century.
The Unep analysis suggests the world is on course to warm around 2.7C with hugely destructive impacts.
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Just a few days before COP26 opens in Glasgow and another scientific report on climate change is “another thundering wake-up call”, according to the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres.
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Extinction Rebellion protesters break bail terms for City protest
Dozens of Extinction Rebellion activists have carried out a mass act of non-violent civil disobedience by breaking bail conditions ordering them to stay away from the City of London financial district.
The activists joined with hundreds of supporters in a low-key rally outside the Bank of England on Thursday afternoon, listening to speeches from a mobile sound system.
XR said they had targeted the Bank because of its new remit to take environmental sustainability into account in its activities, and that protesters were willing to stay until its governor and the prime minister declared an end to all new fossil fuel funding.
Those breaking bail advertised their civil disobedience with signs bearing messages such as “arrested for sitting in a road”, “arrested for conspiracy to commit climate justice” and “arrested for caring about my grandchildren”.
Among them was Etienne Stott, who won gold in the canoe slalom for Britain in the 2012 London Olympics. He gave a speech publicly telling the crowd he was breaking the law by violating the conditions of his bail.
He told the Guardian: “I’m fed up of being criminalised for acting for the future of all life on Earth in a peaceful, disobedient and responsible way, and it feels quite wrong that I’ve been criminalised for doing what’s so logically and obviously the right thing, given the emergency situation that we are in.
“It seems to me completely sensible that our government stops its fossil fuel investments immediately, and yet I know they have got plans for a new oilfield in Shetland [and] a coalmine that’s in train.
“It’s just so wrong. It’s the height of stupidity; it’s madness.”
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Atmospheric CO2 Levels Haven’t Been This High in 800,000 Years: NOAA
A major report on climate says both greenhouse gas concentrations and global sea levels hit record highs in 2020.
Republished under a Creative Commons Licence. Original article at CommonDreams
KENNY STANCILAugust 25, 2021
Bolstering the case for meaningful climate action, a major report released Wednesday found that Earth’s atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations and sea levels both hit record highs in 2020.
“This situation is urgent, but it’s not hopeless. We have an opportunity to lead the global response in the fight against the climate crisis—we cannot afford to waste it.”
—Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson
Based on the contributions of more than 530 scientists from over 60 countries and compiled by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), State of the Climate in 2020 is the 31st installment of the leading annual evaluation of the global climate system.
“The major indicators of climate change,” officials from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information pointed out in a statement, “continued to reflect trends consistent with a warming planet. Several markers such as sea level, ocean heat content, and permafrost once again broke records set just one year prior.”
“Annual global surface temperatures were 0.97°–1.12°F (0.54°–0.62°C) above the 1981–2010 average” in 2020, said NOAA, making last year one of the three warmest on record “even with a cooling La Niña influence in the second half of the year.”
Last year was the warmest on record without an El Niño effect, and “new high-temperature records were set across the globe,” NOAA said. The agency added that the past seven years (2014-2020) had been the seven warmest on record.
Although the coronavirus-driven economic slowdown resulted in an estimated 6% to 7% reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2020, the global average atmospheric concentration of CO2 increased to a record high of 412.5 parts per million. The atmospheric concentrations of other major greenhouse gases (GHG), including methane and nitrous oxide, also continued to climb to record highs last year despite the pandemic.
According to NOAA, last year’s CO2 concentration “was 2.5 parts per million greater than 2019 amounts and was the highest in the modern 62-year measurement record and in ice core records dating back as far as 800,000 years.” Moreover, “the year-over-year increase of methane (14.8 parts per billion) was the highest such increase since systematic measurements began.”
In addition, global sea levels continued to rise, surpassing previous records.
“For the ninth consecutive year,” said NOAA, “global average sea level rose to a new record high and was about 3.6 inches (91.3 millimeters) higher than the 1993 average,” which is when satellite measurements began. As a result of melting glaciers and ice sheets, warming oceans, and other expressions of the climate crisis, the “global sea level is rising at an average rate of 1.2 inches (3.0 centimeter) per decade.”
Other notable findings of the new report include:
- Upper atmospheric temperatures were record or near-record setting;
- Oceans absorbed a record amount of CO2, global upper ocean heat content reached a record high, and the global average sea surface temperature was the third highest on record;
- The Arctic continued to warm at a faster pace than lower latitudes—resulting in a spike in carbon-releasing fires—and minimum sea ice extent was the second smallest in the 42-year satellite record;
- Antarctica witnessed extreme heat and a record-long ozone hole; and
- There were 102 named tropical storms during the Northern and Southern Hemisphere storm seasons, well above the 1981–2010 average of 85.
In contrast to the release less than three weeks ago of the latest assessment from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which warned that fossil fuel emissions are intensifying extreme weather disasters—provoking a flurry of reactions and even garnering a short-lived uptick in corporate media’s coverage of the climate emergency—NOAA’s new report was met with less fanfare.
In one of the few early statements issued by members of Congress in response to the report, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) said that “scientists sounded the alarm on the climate crisis again.”
“It is clear that without swift action, we can, unfortunately, expect to set new records like these every year,” said Johnson, chair of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. “The consequences of climate change impact every American—especially disadvantaged communities—across the country; from the devastating floods in Tennessee a few days ago to the record-breaking wildfires in the West.”
“Building a better future for all means acting on climate now,” the lawmaker added. “This situation is urgent, but it’s not hopeless. We have an opportunity to lead the global response in the fight against the climate crisis—we cannot afford to waste it.”
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