People hold candles during Earth Hour after the lights were turned off in central Amman March 29, 2014.
People hold candles during Earth Hour after the lights were turned off in central Amman March 29, 2014. Earth Hour, when everyone around the world is asked to turn off lights for an hour from 8.30 p.m. local time, is meant as a show of support for tougher actions to confront climate change. Reuters/Ali Jarekji

Global warming could spell disaster to species, making them extinct. According to a study conducted in the United States, every degree rise in temperature could make one in six species disappear.

Most of the studies conducted are on how climate change could affect a single species. The author of "Accelerating Extinction Risk from Climate Change," Mark Urban, an ecology and evolutionary biology researcher at the University of Connecticut, is the first to include all species.

According to Urban, climate change will accelerate extinctions around the globe unless new methods are employed to curb it and adopt new strategies to conserve and protect threatened species. He analysed and evaluated 131 previous studies on the impact of climatic change on plants and animals around the world. The results found that with each rising degree in temperature, more species will be at the risk of extinction. The study also revealed that extinction risks will be high in New Zealand, Australia and South America due to their unique climatic conditions.

The study found South America is the most vulnerable place where 23 percent of the species could face extinction. In North America, 6 percent could go extinct when compared to Europe, which could face a 5 percent extinction.

Climatic changes may not affect all species to become extinct, however. These will bring about various changes and problems that will have to be dealt with. Some species that are not directly threatened by extinction could face other problems like changes in abundance, distribution and how they interact with members of the other species. This could bring about changes in the ecosystem, spread of diseases and growth of crop including other consequences.

The study also found that the extinction risk was almost the same for all species and groups, which was unexpected. Urban states that it is difficult to predict change but all of us have to contend with one climate. When dealing with living things, there are a million species that are different from each other. He goes on to add that we may be surprised as indirect biologic risks that are not even recognised at present may turn out to have a greater impact than we've ever anticipated.

Urban urges all governments to take immediate steps to prevent widespread extinction.

For comments/questions regarding the article, you may email the writer at samrichardson.ibtimes@gmail.com.

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