Life on Earth mostly made it through 500 million years of asteroids and supervolcanoes only to be wiped out by a half a degree rise. This really will be unprecedented.
Climate change could destroy half of Earth’s animal and plant species in the next 50 years, disturbing study says
Despite animals surviving temperature rises of 20 degrees every day, a half a degree of warming in 50 years will kill off half the species on Earth.
A disturbing new study suggests that climate change could wipe out half of the planet’s animal and plant species by 2070.
The research notes that if temperatures rise 0.5 degrees Celsius around the globe, approximately half of the world’s species would become locally extinct. If temperatures were to rise 2.9 degrees Celsius, 95 percent of the species would become locally extinct.
Note the scale on the graph of the last 500 million years. I marked half a degree in the red box.
Image by Glen Fergus Wikimedia.
I’m not too concerned about life on Earth surviving the next 50 years. But at this rate of decay, science is cactus.
These researchers think Earth is a simulation:
“By […]
via JoNova
February 13, 2020 at 12:27PM
Iowa Climate Science Education 