Nearly every day we get another warning over the impact climate change is having on the world’s wildlife. As the predictions get ever gloomier, soon species will become extinct before the world has acted.
The latest assessment is on birds. Climate change is “significantly amplifying” the threats facing the world’s bird populations, a global assessment has concluded.
The 2008 Bird Red List warns that long-term droughts and extreme weather puts additional stress on key habitats. The assessment lists 1,226 species as threatened with extinction – one-in-eight of all bird species.
The list, reviewed every four years, is compiled by conservation charity BirdLife International. “It is very hard to precisely attribute particular changes in specific species to climate change,” said Stuart Butchart, BirdLife’s global research and indicators co-ordinator. “But there is now a whole suite of species that are clearly becoming threatened by extreme weather events and droughts.”