A study published in Science highlights that reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the primary cause of climate disruption, is also essential to combat biodiversity loss.
In Yalimapo, on the west coast of French Guiana, only 39 leatherback turtle nests were recorded during the last nesting season. This historically low number « raises concerns about the extinction of this population, » according to a statement from the Marine Turtle Network of French Guiana, published on Wednesday, December 4. Among the threats faced by the largest marine reptile are accidental captures due to fishing, light pollution, poaching, and climate change. As sand temperature rises, more female turtles are born, which disrupts the balance of the population. This year, « the effects of rising temperatures on egg development, leading to a low survival rate, » were also observed.
As with the leatherback turtle, the impact of the climate crisis on biodiversity has been clearly established. Research published on December 5 in the American journal Science clarifies the risk of species extinction as the planet warms: Mark Urban, a researcher in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Connecticut (USA), synthesized 485 studies published over the past 30 years, covering most known plant and animal species. From this meta-analysis, he confirms that extinctions are likely to accelerate above the 1.5°C threshold.
At the current level of warming (about +1.3°C compared to pre-industrial levels), 1.6% of species could disappear due to the climate crisis. With a 1.5°C rise, the most ambitious target of the Paris Climate Agreement, 1.8% of species are threatened. This figure increases to 2.7% at 2°C, and then rises to 5%, or one in twenty species, at 2.7°C, which is the globally expected level of warming if current trends continue. The extinction risk then jumps to 14.9% at 4.3°C, and reaches 29.7% at 5.4°C.
Source: Le Monde
