4ONE-THIRD OF ALL PLANT AND ANIMAL SPECIES COULD BE EXTINT IN 50 YEARS, STUDY WARNS

One-third of all animal and plant species on the planet could face extinction by 2070 due to climate change, a new study warns. Researchers studied recent extinctions from climate change to estimate how many species would be lost over the next 50 years.

Specifically, scientists from the University of Arizona studied data from 538 species at 581 sites around the world and focused on plant and animal species that were surveyed at the same sites over time, at least 10 years apart. “By analyzing the change in 19 climatic variables at each site, we could determine which variables drive local extinctions and how much change a population can tolerate without going extinct,” said Cristian Roman-Palacios, of the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona, in a statement.

“We also estimated how quickly populations can move to try and escape rising temperatures. “When we put all of these pieces of information together for each species, we can come up with detailed estimates of global extinction rates for hundreds of plant and animal species.”

Globally, up to 1 million species are at risk of extinction because of human activities, according to a United Nations report released in May. Many experts say a “mass extinction event” - only the sixth in the past half-billion years - is already underway. This study found that maximum annual temperatures - the highest daily highs in summer - are the key variable that best explains whether a species will go extinct. — USA TODAY