Climate Change ‘Raises Extinction Risk’

Climate change doesn’t pose a unique threat of extinction to a species, scientists say. It just makes the risk more likely to become a reality.

The researchers examined all the information available on salamanders, turtles, tortoises, snakes and lizards and concluded that, overall, there was a 28% chance of extinction by 2100.  But without climate change, this risk dwindled to 1%.

“Surprisingly, we found that the most important factors – such as having a small range or low population size – are already used in conservation assessments,” said Dr Pearson.  “The new results indicate that current systems may be able to better identify species vulnerability to climate change than previously thought.”

Climate Change ‘Raises Extinction Risk’