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WWF Report Outlines Global Warming Threat To Plants And Animal Species

 

A WWF report once again underlines the damage caused by global warming, "The decades spent burning fossil fuels, coupled with unbridled deforestation, are having an undeniable impact on our planet." For WWF, the impact is without appeal, as outlined in its recent report entitled "Wildlife In A Warming World" which summarises the catastrophic situation that awaits us in the next decades, if measures are not taken to stabilise global warming to 1.5 ° C or 2 ° C. According to the NGO, nearly 50% of species living in the most biodiverse regions could disappear by 2080.

The study focuses on 35 priority "Ecoregions" from all corners of the globe including the Amazon, Madagascar, Mediterranean, Australia and the Yangtze Kiang - the longest river in Asia. The disappearance of nearly half of the animal and vegetable species corresponds to the predicted scenario of 4.5 ° C increase, consequent to the rise in temperatures between the pre-industrial era and the end of our century. An extreme rise that could become a reality if humanity continues to live by exploiting fossil resources at the same rate as today and makes no effort to fight against global warming.

However, if global warming is limited to an increase of 2°C - the least ambitious objective of the Paris Agreement - the extinction of species would be halved. This study proposes to implement adaptation measures in these Ecoregions to allow animals to find "climate refuges and ecological corridors". But some animals such as amphibians and reptiles and plants are even more threatened.

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