DEAD END Between 6 and 10% of animals and plants could be extinct by 2050, study finds
At COP15 Biodiversity in Montreal, December 13, 2022. o by/AFP) — Andrej Ivanov < /em>
Numbers to illustrate the impasse in which the planet finds itself. Global warming and the degradation of natural habitats will cause a “waterfall” of extinctions among animal and plant species, according to a study published Friday in the journal Science Advances. The Earth will therefore lose between 6 and 10% of its animals and plants by 2050, and until 2050. 27% by 2100,
This estimate is based on new modeling tools forged by two European and Australian scientists, in order to better take into account “co-extinctions”, the fruits of the disappearance“ ;Cascading” of interdependent species. For example, when a species becomes extinct due to climate change (primary extinction), its predator also eventually goes extinct due to lack of food (co-extinction). “Each species depends on the others in some way,” Flinders Australia, co-author of the study.
Consideration of “who eats who?”
This observation of chain extinctions “inevitable” intervenes at the moment when ministers from around the world are gathered for COP15 at Montreal to seal a new “peace pact with nature”. The challenges are enormous as one million species are threatened with extinction. Climate change is expected to accelerate this movement under the effect of extreme weather events, changes in behavior or habitats.
But the authors of the study believe that the pre Previous models did not take co-extinctions into account. To better understand them, they built with the help of high-powered computers a huge “virtual planet Earth” taking into account “who eats whom” to AFP Corey Bradshaw.
Researchers predict that the greatest threat will materialize there. where biodiversity is also the most important. They also found that climate change is responsible for the greatest proportion of extinctions, a further reminder that the twin crises of climate and biodiversity are are intimately linked.