Endangered species list grows by 2,000; climate change is a contributor
Climate change is worsening the planet’s biodiversity crises, making environments more deadly for thousands of species and accelerating the precipitous decline in the number of plants and animals on Earth, according to an international organization that tracks species health.
Species of salmon and turtles are among those facing a decline as the planet warms.
Atlantic salmon isn’t yet threatened with extinction, but its population dropped by nearly a quarter from 2006 to 2020, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which tracks biodiversity around the globe, said on Monday. It’s now considered near threatened. They live in fewer places and face human-created hazards like dams and water pollution. Climate change is making it harder for the fish to find food and easier for alien species to compete, according to the group. Although there are some signs of hope: their numbers ticked up in Maine this past year.
The news was announced at the United Nations climate conference in the United Arab Emirates on Monday. Leaders of the IUCN updated their Red List of Threatened Species, a tracker of biodiversity around the globe. It was mainly bad news. The list includes information on 157,000 species, about 7,000 more than last year’s update.
The IUCN said just over 44,000 species are threatened with extinction. That’s roughly 2,000 more than last year.
“Species around the world are under huge pressure. So no matter where you look, the numbers of threatened species are rising,” said Craig Hilton-Taylor, head of the Red List unit at the IUCN.
Climate change is worsening conditions for about 6,700 species threatened with extinction.
The Central South Pacific and East Pacific green turtle is at greater risk because of climate change, for example. Fewer turtles hatch as higher seas inundate nests. Warming waters can harm its food supply of seagrasses.
The update includes the first broad assessment of the health of freshwater fish species. One-quarter of species — just over 3,000 — face an extinction risk. As climate change raises sea levels, salt water is traveling further up rivers, for example. And these species already face tremendous threats from pollution and overfishing, the IUCN said.
Frogs, salamanders and other amphibians are suffering the most. About 41% of these species are under threat.
“They are climate captives because of higher temperatures, drought — whatever happens amphibians cannot move out of harm’s way and are directly impacted by climate change,” said Vivek Menon, deputy chair of the IUCN’s species survival commission.
There was a bit of good news. Two antelope species are fairing better, although they still have a long way to go before their long-term survival is stabilized. For example, the scimitar-horned oryx, a light-colored animal with curved horns, had previously been categorized as extinct in the wild but is now endangered. It faced a lot of threats: poaching, drought and car accidents all played a role in largely eliminating the species by the turn of the century. But recent efforts to reintroduce the species in Chad have helped and there are now at least 140 adults and more than twice as many calves on a large nature reserve.
IUCN’s director general Grethel Aguilar said it’s clear humans need to act to protect biodiversity and when conservation is done right, it works. To combat the threat posed by climate change, she said fossil fuels need to be phased out, a contentious focus of this year’s COP28 negotiations.
“Nature is here to help us, so let us help it back,” she said.
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KYIV, Ukraine — A Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s capital early Monday destroyed several homes and left more than 100 households without electricity.
The predawn attack on Kyiv came amid warnings that Russia will step up its attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure as winter sets in with freezing temperatures.
A series of loud explosions followed by air raid sirens broke the silence in Kyiv just after 4 a.m. as the city was under its nightly curfew.
Ukraine’s military said its air defenses intercepted all eight ballistic missiles. However, falling debris from rockets damaged homes on the ground, leaving one person wounded and three others suffering severe shock, officials said.
AP journalists witnessed some of the destruction in the district of Bortnychi on the southeastern outskirts of Kyiv. A home under construction was ripped apart and nearby buildings were partially damaged, with gaping holes in the roofs and walls.
Victor Demchenko, the owner of the destroyed house, was clearing debris from his property, next to a crater about five meters (16 feet) deep in the backyard. Demchenko said that he was in another part of the city when he heard the explosions.
“Then the neighbor called … and said all that is left of the house is a crater,” he said. “I didn’t believe him, so I took the car and drove here. Well, you can see it yourself, there is nothing to be found here.”
At another home about two kilometers (a mile) away, Nadia Matvienko was lucky to escape uninjured when her home was damaged in the attack.
“It’s like I felt something. I couldn’t sleep all night, was turning in my bed back and forth. Then ‘bang, bang,’ we rushed to the hallway. Next thing we heard is the house being torn apart,” she said, wiping away tears as she sat in her home with shattered glass and damaged furniture strewn across the floor.
The attack also left some 120 households in the city without electricity, Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy said. Ukrainian officials have warned that Russia will target energy infrastructure to cause power outages and blackouts like it did last winter.
In an intelligence update over the weekend, the U.K. Defense Ministry noted that Russia last week used its heavy bomber fleet for the first time since September. It predicted the start of a more concerted campaign aimed at degrading Ukraine’s energy infrastructure as winter sets in. In other developments:
• The Ukrainian air force said it intercepted 18 Russian drones on Monday, mostly over the southern Mykolaiv region.
• A bottleneck for trucks at the Ukrainian-Polish border seemed to ease, at least temporarily, as Ukraine’s minister of infrastructure announced transit had been restored after being held up for more than a month by Polish truckers protesting against what they called unfair competition from Ukrainian counterparts.