The World Conservation Union (IUCN) continued their annual conference today, and released a fascinating report that details the way global warming can push species towards extinction. This report shows that animals in certain types of habitat are dying around the world, proving that the cause is a global change. The fact that these species can now be linked to temperature-specific vulnerabilities proves that global warming is why these animals are suffering.

The researchers found 90 possible characteristics that would make an animal vulnerable to climate change, and thusly “thirty-five percent of the world’s birds, 52 percent of amphibians and 71 percent of warm-water reef-building corals are likely to be particularly susceptible to climate change.”

They also warned that the more specific a species’ lifestyle is,  the more danger it’s in - they specifically noted that burrowing frogs and other amphibians who rely on underground habitats are becoming endangered around the world. They elaborated that:

Specialized habitat requirements, such as species with water-dependant larvae, and those unable to disperse due to barriers such as large water bodies or human-transformed habitats are most at risk…

The report found that 566 of 799 warm-water reef-building coral species are likely to be susceptible to the impacts of climate change. 

I mentioned before the specific dangers that face alpine species who are used to very particular environments, but the fact that animals with similar habitats are dying off around the world proves that the threat has a climatological basis, and not series of coincidental, localized ones. 

This research is a massive step forward in our understanding about the nature of global warming, and could be a serious turning point in the way we regulate fossil fuels and greenhouse gases. This is, to my knowledge, the first time that that mechanisms by which global warming can threaten species have been laid out in such detail. That’s what it’s going to take to address the concerns of the doubters, and that’s what it’s going to take to be strategic about saving these threatened species and ecosystems.

photo by Michael Barritt & Karen May

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