breadCrumbs("www.panda.org",">","index.cfm","None","None","None","0"); WWF Newsroom fr Newsroom Press Releases Feature Articles ... You can Help! Help ensure the Kyoto protocol - the world's main answer to combat climate change - becomes a success NOW. Press Release 30, Aug 2000 One-third of world's habitat at risk from global warming Related Links WWF's Climate Change Programme Report: Global Warming and Terrestrial Biodiversity Decline (1.62 MB) Print Page Send this link to a friend London, UK - Global warming could fundamentally alter one third of plant and animal habitats by the end of this century, and cause the eventual extinction of certain plant and animal species, according to a new study released today by WWF. The report, Global Warming and Terrestrial Biodiversity Decline , says that in the northern latitudes of Canada, Russia and Scandinavia, where warming is predicted to be most rapid, up to 70 percent of habitat could be lost. Russia, Canada, Kyrgystan, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Uruguay, Bhutan and Mongolia are likely to loose 45 per cent or more of current habitat while many coastal and island species will be at risk from the combined threat of warming oceans, sea-level rise and range shifts. "As global warming accelerates, plants and animals will come under increasing pressure to migrate to find suitable habitat. Some will just not be able to move fast enough," said Adam Markham, Executive Director of a US NGO, Clean Air-Cool Planet, one of the co-authors of the report. "In some places, plants would need to move ten times faster than they did during the last ice age merely to survive. It is likely that global warming will mean extinction for some plants and animals." | |
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