According to the latest news about extinction, Scientists have released a new study that forewarns a serious future for humans and other mammals. This research was published in Nature Geoscience and led by Dr. Alexander Farnsworth from the University of Bristol.
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Earth’s continents are slowly moving and over millions of years, they are expected to converge into a single, unified supercontinent named Pangea Ultima.
This merging of landmasses will change Earth’s climate, as vast portions of land will lose the cooling influence of nearby oceans resulting in a phenomenon known as the continentality effect.
The study addresses three primary factors driving the expected surge in temperatures, the continentality effect, an increasingly intense sun and higher carbon dioxide levels.
As Pangea Ultima forms, large areas of land will be isolated from oceans. Without oceanic cooling, temperatures on the supercontinent are predicted to skyrocket.
Over time, the sun will emit more energy, amplifying the planet’s warming. Increased volcanic activity linked to tectonic shifts is expected to raise CO₂ levels, trapping more heat in the atmosphere.
According to the latest news about extinction, Predictions indicate temperatures will reach between 40-50°C in many areas, with even higher daily extremes. Humidity will compound the temperature increases, creating conditions too extreme for human thermoregulation.
According to Dr. Farnsworth, these temperatures would be unbearable for humans, who rely on sweat to cool their bodies.
The combination of heat and humidity would make survival impossible leading to what scientists call news about extinction in a future world too hot for mammals.
The study predicts that only 8-16% of Pangea Ultima would be viable for mammalian life including humans. Even in the limited habitable areas, finding water and food sources would be increasingly difficult due to the lack of water bodies on the supercontinent.
The team projects that current CO₂ levels could rise to over 600 ppm in the future due to natural volcanic activity associated with tectonic movement.
However, the study addresses that human emissions are accelerating this process and worsening the climate crisis.
This news about extinction underlines the urgent need for reaching net-zero emissions, as current trends are already pushing temperatures to dangerous levels for human health and safety.
The climate change conference, COP29 begins on November 11. Meanwhile, COP16, the biodiversity summit, struggled for media attention.
The biodiversity crisis often relegated to the background, impacts human survival as directly as climate change does.
Yet, nearly 80% of countries failed to submit biodiversity action plans at COP16.
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Since 1970, wildlife populations have decreased by 73%. Notable species such as the golden toad and the Pinta giant tortoise have already vanished since 2015.
At COP16, experts warned that 46,000 species face extinction risks including over a third of the world’s trees. This mass depletion is a warning sign of larger ecological consequences that may cascade into human communities.
In the environmental discourse, climate change has overshadowed biodiversity loss. Governments and media outlets focus on climate indicators like global temperatures and carbon emissions.
This narrow focus not only neglects the direct impact of ecosystem destruction but also misses the crucial role of biodiversity in climate mitigation.
According to the latest news about extinction, Forests, oceans and wetlands absorb vast amounts of carbon dioxide. Losing them weakens our ability to combat the climate crisis itself.
Environmental movements in the 1980s and early 1990s transitioned from emotive appeals to save specific species like whales and pandas, to the abstract concept of global warming.
The shift to climate-centric messaging streamlined the cause but sacrificed the relatable, visual stories of nature’s plight.
Studies show that climate change receives up to eight times more media coverage than biodiversity loss, often neglecting how interconnected the two issues are.
According to the latest news about extinction, Numbers and data points such as a 0.2°C temperature increase per decade. While scientifically accurate, the metrics don’t convey the human and ecological suffering they represent.
Earth has Seen Five Mass Extinctions in its History:
- Ordovician-Silurian Extinction: 443 million years ago, wiping out 85% of marine species.
- Late Devonian Extinction: 360 million years ago, eliminating around 75% of species.
- Permian-Triassic Extinction: 252 million years ago, driven by volcanic activity in Siberia, wiping out around 96% of marine species.
- Triassic-Jurassic Extinction: 200 million years ago, resulting in the loss of 50% of species.
- Cretaceous-Paleogene Extinction: 66 million years ago, where an asteroid impact killed off the dinosaurs and many other species.
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