National Threatened Species Day - September 7: The bush sends 'early warning' signal
07 Sep 2003
Early warning signals from the Bush predict devastation for our iconic species in a warming world, according to WWF-Australia CEO David Butcher.
On National Threatened Species Day, the anniversary of the death of the last Tasmanian Tiger in captivity, WWF-Australia warns climate change could hasten the extinction of some of our most famous inhabitants.
A recent Federal Government report from the Biodiversity Advisory Committee shows clear evidence of the emerging threat to Australian iconic species through climate change.
The mountain pygmy possum, the numbat, and the tree kangaroo are among some of Australias most well-known animals in danger of extinction in a drastically warming world.
All are heading the way of the Tasmanian Tiger if their early warnings about climate change arent heeded.
Within 20 years many species of Australias famous eucalypts will have their entire present day population exposed to temperature and rainfalls under which no individual trees currently exist this is very bad news for species such as the koala.
Australia is most at risk by even small changes in temp. Only a 0.7 degrees of global warming has had a big impact on the severity of our worst drought on record - Australias wet tropical mountain rainforests will decrease by 50 per cent with only 1C rise in the global temperature.
More than 7 per cent of all living species on Earth are in Australia- and most of them are not found anywhere else.
WWF-Australia CEO Dr David Butcher said, There is no doubt Australias threatened species are the canary in the coal mine. Humans are as much a product of natural systems as any other species.
Many of our internationally-renowned national parks that currently protect endangered species, like Kakadu, the Great Barrier Reef and the World Heritage-listed Greater Blue Mountains Area, may not have suitable climate in the future for these species.
As the climate changes, scientists are seeing changes in animal abundance and distribution, changes in body size, development, and genetics, and shifts in timing of events, such as breeding.
Clear scientific evidence shows some wildlife across the world tends to move towards the cooler regions and higher altitudes to escape the heat - unfortunately for many other it not now possible in the modern world.
"Australia is one of 12 land masses that are regarded as mega-diverse.This relates to the abundance and diversity of life and species.
Our country is the ONLY developed, industrialised and scientifically advanced country among this group of 12. A wave of extinctions across Australia is continuing and unless action is taken to halt the massive changes to habitat, species will continue to be lost.
Even the Australian Productivity Commission is worried about climate change and biodiversity- the economic rationalists are saying its our responsibility to support biodiversity.
The Commission claims that 23 per cent of mammals, 16 per cent of amphibians, 9 per cent of fish, 9 per cent of birds, 7 per cent of reptiles and 5 per cent of plants are either listed as extinct or at risk of becoming so.
See recent evidence of climate change
threatening endangered species
- Earth hits '2,000-year warming peak' - Professor Philip Jones, of the climatic research unit, University of East Anglia, UK, and Professor Michael Mann, of the University of Virginia, US. Their independent study, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, supports recent findings from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
- British scientists say greenhouse gases are at the highest background levels ever recorded in the atmosphere. They say stabilising the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) will be harder, because a warming world will trigger feedback mechanisms The report, the Global Atmosphere Research Programme 2000-2002, is published by the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
- Two groups of US biologists say they have detected a consistent pattern of response by wild species to warmer temperatures. They say this is evidence that climate change is affecting living systems, as climatologists have predicted. Many species are forsaking their ranges to find cooler or higher habitats. And several regular springtime events are now happening earlier than they did a few decades ago. The biologists' work is reported in the journal Nature.
Climate Change Impacts on Biodiversity in Australia, Biological Diversity Advisory Committee.
