Surprise species at risk from climate change

[knocker]

Most species at greatest risk from climate change are not currently conservation priorities, according to an International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) study that has introduced a pioneering method to assess the vulnerability of species to climate change.

 

The paper, published in the journal PLOS ONE, is one of the biggest studies of its kind, assessing all of the world’s birds, amphibians and corals. It draws on the work of more than 100 scientists over a period of five years, including Wits PhD student and leader of the study, Wendy Foden.

 

http://www.wits.ac.za/newsroom/newsitems/201306/20344/news_item_20344.html

[nitro_deluxe]

Or. Could be just a case that evolution just carries on regardless?

Lizards are just mini versions of dinosaurs, or aren't they? Bats..Pterodactyls.

Why complicate matters no not you Knocker, promise.

Maybe we're going full-circle again - as nature quite often does. Still, what do I know..

[Gray-Wolf]

Evolution depends upon a large enough Gene pool for 'adaptations' to arise that better suit the changing environment. such changes are generally occuring over Geological time scales. The current speed of change far outstrips the abilities of critters to 'adapt' to there new living conditions so they just go extinct.

 

We are in the midst of one of , if not 'the' greatest, extinction events the planet has seen and we still cannot agree on just how 'impacted' our planet will be by our current climate shift.

 

As it is the areas we can see change occuring in are far outstripping the 'worse case scenarios' that we saw modelled in the early noughties.

 

We end up back in 'A Winters Tale' and Perdita's " I'll not have those $astards in my garden" against the Princes " we are of nature and so our impacts are'natural'"

 

We either mourne the losses and do our best to save as many species as we can or we just accept that it is all part of the 'natural evolution' of the planet?

[4wd]

It's not climate shift causing extinctions, it's us.But evolution is opportunistic and new niches are always being created and filled.

[nitro_deluxe]

Gary-Wolf great post btw..but what of the new species that we're also finding? Or have discovered? Why connect these alleged findings to climate and climate alone?

Don't they count - in our minuscule life-spans, or compared to the Earth's, animal kingdom and humanity in general, making rock solid conclusions are going to be rather difficult to predict IMO - although the possibilities of course remain endless, with all due respect, nobody knows what shall be in say ten, one hundred or a thousand plus years time..

Evolution is just that - it never changes, stops or to be frank gives a hoot about what we may or may not think