Biodiversity 'hot spots' devastated in warming world

Many of the planet's most cherished creatures, like the snow leopard, will wind up on a path to extinction unless humanity stops loading the atmosphere with CO2 and methane. – Photo: AFP Relaxnews

Unless nations dramatically improve on carbon cutting pledges made under the 2015 Paris climate treaty, the planet's richest concentrations of animal and plant life will be irreversibly ravaged by global warming, scientists warned Friday.

An analysis of 8,000 published risk assessments for species showed a high danger for extinction in nearly 300 biodiversity "hot spots", on land and in the sea, if temperatures rise three degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, they reported in the journal Biological Conservation.