Telegraph The study by the Carnegie Institution for Science in
Washington predicted that by 2100 only 18 to 45 per cent of the
plants and animals in tropical forests may exist as they are
today. scaremongering or ...?
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Mathew Carr, emissions markets, energy reporter. London Bloomberg News ph +44 207 073 3531 yahoo ID carr_mathew
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Climate Change And Illegal Logging Could Wipe Out Rainforest Wildlife By 2100
2010-08-05 17:20:44.463 GMT
By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent
Aug. 5 (Telegraph) -- Most of the plants and animals found
in rainforests today could die out by the end of the century
because of climate change and illegal logging, according to a new
study
The colourful wildlife found in tropical humid forests makes
up more than half of the animal and plant species on Earth.
But the first study to look into the combined effect of both
global warming and deforestation found most species are in danger
of extinction.
The study by the Carnegie Institution for Science in
Washington predicted that by 2100 only 18 to 45 per cent of the
plants and animals in tropical forests may exist as they are
today.
This will mean that most will have to adapt, move or die.
The scientists calculated the threat to rainforests from
drought or forest fires as the world warms by looking at 16
different climate change models from research centres around the
world.
They also studied the threat of deforestation by looking at
satellite imagery showing the rate of illegal logging.
The worst affected areas will be the Amazon, followed by the
rainforests in Africa and Indonesia.
Daniel Nepstad, an ecologist at the Woods Hole Research
Center in Massachusetts, said only a cut in greenhouse gases can
save the world's wildlife.
"This study is the strongest evidence yet that the world's
natural ecosystems will undergo profound changes — including
severe alterations in their species composition — through the
combined influence of climate change and land use," he said.
"Conservation of the world's biota, as we know it, will
depend upon rapid, steep declines in greenhouse gas emissions."
-0- Aug/05/2010 17:20 GMT
