Earth races towards sixth mass extinction of animals, claims study

Half the world's species are failing to cope with global warming, says leading evolutionary biologist

A new environmental study has suggested that the sixth mass extinction of animal life in Earth’s history could take place in as little as 50 years, claiming that nearly half the species on the planet are failing to cope with global warming.

According to the study conducted by Professor John Wiens, a leading evolutionary biologist, 47% of nearly 1,000 species suffered local extinction linked to climate change with population absent from areas where they had been found before.

The study said that implications for the future were serious because it showed plants and animals were struggling to deal with relatively small amount of global warming experienced to date.

The world has so far warmed by about 1⁰C above pre-industrial levels, and is expected to hit between 2.6 and 4.8⁰C by 2100 if nothing is done to reduce the effect of greenhouse gases.



The survey has examined academic papers about 976 different species from around the globe that had been studied at least twice, once about 50 years ago and again within the last 10 years.

“In almost half the species looked at, there have been local extinctions already,” he said. “This is stuff that’s already happened with just a small change to the climate. We’re looking at a two to five-fold increase [in warming over the next century].”

“What it shows is species cannot change fast enough to keep up with a small change in climate. That’s the big implication – even a small change in temperature and they cannot handle it,” he said.

This article originally appeared on The Independent