The poison dark frog is among the many wildlife at risk of extinction as the global climate changes. Photo: AFP
About one in six species now alive on the planet could become extinct as a result of climate change, according to a study published in the journal Science. If present trends continue, the Earth’s temperature will wind up 4.3°C higher than it was before the onset of the industrial era. Should that scenario come to pass, as many as 16% of species around the world would be at risk of dying out, the study says.
Author Mark Urban, an ecologist and evolutionary biologist at the University of Connecticut, based his calculation on a meta-analysis of 131 previous studies that made predictions about how multiple species would fare in a warmer world.
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