The number of endangered and threatened species affected by climate change is dramatically higher than previously thought, say researchers in the UK, Australia, Italy and the U.S.
“New analysis has found that nearly half (47%) of the mammals and nearly a quarter (24.4%) of the birds on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list of threatened species are negatively impacted by climate change – a total of about 700 species,” reports The Guardian. “Previous assessments had said only 7% of listed mammals and 4% of birds were impacted.”
“Many risk assessments are simply blind to the fact that climate change is happening now. If you read a scientific paper on climate change and species, it’s always that things will get worse in the future, not that it’s happening now,” said Dr. James Watson of the University of Queensland and the Wildlife Conservation Society, and one of the study’s coauthors.