Comments on: Will global warming cause a mass extinction event?

By: Global warming killing corals - Page 5 - US Message Board - Political Discussion Forum

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 04:06:12 +0000

[...] and scientific sources. And you have been presenting nonsense from Watts and political rags. Will global warming cause a mass extinction event? BraveNewClimate Human are transforming the global environmental. Great swathes of temperate forest in Europe, Asia [...]

By: Climate change basics III – environmental impacts and tipping points « BraveNewClimate

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 02:44:25 +0000

[...] Past global climate change characteristically unfolded over many millennia, whereas current anthropogenic global warming is now occurring at a greatly accelerated rate. If emissions are not checked, a level of planetary heating comparable to the difference between the present day and the height of the last ice age, or between now and the age of the dinosaurs (when Antarctica was ice free), is expected to unfold over a period of less than a century! When such catastrophically rapid changes in climate did, very occasionally, occur in the deep past – associated, for instance, with a large asteroid strike from space – a mass extinction event inevitably ensued. Most life just could not cope, and it took millions of years after this shock for biodiversity to recover. It has been estimated that 20 to 60 per cent of species might become extinct in the next few centuries, if global warming of more than a few degrees occurs. Many thousands (perhaps millions) will be from tropical areas, about which we know very little. A clear lesson from the past is that the faster and more severe the rate of global change, the more …. [...]

By: Classics: Extinction from Climate Change « ConservationBytes.com

Classics: Extinction from Climate Change « ConservationBytes.com — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 13:39:57 +0000

[...] (and prevent) extinctions arising from a rapidly heating planet (see BraveNewClimate.com’s excellent summary here, as well as his general category of ‘ecological impacts of climate [...]

By: Ice: canary in the global coal mine « ConservationBytes.com

Ice: canary in the global coal mine « ConservationBytes.com — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 08:15:19 +0000

[...] Ice: canary in the global coal mine 14 09 2009 An intended pun from James Balog in another classic TED talk. If you thought climate change was merely a prediction from mathematical models, think again. The biodiversity implications are staggering. [...]

By: Barry Brook

Barry Brook — Tue, 26 May 2009 23:50:00 +0000

Unprecedented, no. Unprecedented in human history, yes — vast volumes of evidence, as detailed in 100s to 1000s of peer-reviewed papers (depending on the particular system). Mark, you cannot give a short reply to such dismissive comments — they are made explicitly to get you to waste hours and hours of time trying to respond to something an idiot can type in 5 seconds. My advice, direct them to IPCC AR4 WG I and II reports, and then ignore them henceforth.

By: Mark Byrne

Mark Byrne — Tue, 26 May 2009 23:39:00 +0000

Barry,

The rebuttal I’m trying make is agaisnts this comment (below mine):

Glacial retreats, sea-level rise and the migration of temperature-sensitive species are normal events. It is the rate, frequency of these events, and the age of the melting ice that provide evidence of warming not seen since eons.

“Nonsense. There is no evidence that these phenomenon are unprecedented.”

Any pointers would be helpful for future discussion.

By: Mark Byrne

Mark Byrne — Tue, 26 May 2009 23:35:09 +0000

Barry, would it be correct to say that Its is the rate, frequency temperature impacts and the age of the melting ice that provide evidence of warming not seen since eons.

Are you aware of references that would support the statement below, or have I got this wrong:

“Glacial retreats, sea-level rise and the migration of temperature-sensitive species are normal events. It is the rate, frequency of these events, and the age of the melting ice that provide evidence of warming not seen since eons.”

By: Did climate change kill off woolly mammoths and giant wombats? « BraveNewClimate.com

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 05:26:24 +0000

[...] So if one insists on a minimalistic answer for what caused the late Quaternary extinctions of megafauna, it seems to be this: the actions of colonising and expanding prehistoric human populations (primarily hunting and habitat modification) seems omnipresent in the past global extinction, but in many cases, species were left much more vulnerable because of climate-induced range contractions and changes in habitat quality. Climate change was the ’straw that broke the camel’s back’ — much as it will be today (or perhaps a haybale), in an era of already massive global change. [...]

By: Global warming strains at species interactions « BraveNewClimate.com

Global warming strains at species interactions « BraveNewClimate.com — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 12:36:34 +0000

[...] As I’ve noted previously on BNC, the pressures faced by biodiversity are multiple and they tend to reinforce each other to make the whole situation that much worse. For instance, heatwaves and droughts tend to exacerbate forest fires, and habitat fragmentation can means that species find it difficult to move through urban and agricultural landscapes to reach new areas that are become climatically suitable to them as the average temperature warms. They get anchored in patchy environments that become increasingly unsuitable for them over time. [...]

By: Squeezing the marine nutcracker « BraveNewClimate.com

Squeezing the marine nutcracker « BraveNewClimate.com — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 08:22:24 +0000

[...] Bol…Neil Craig on What Bob Carter and Andrew Bol…Global warming – The… on Will global warming cause a ma…Luke Silburn on What Bob Carter and Andrew Bol…Hank Roberts on About [...]

By: Global warming - The Environment Site Forums

Global warming - The Environment Site Forums — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 16:22:11 +0000

[...] exceeds what happened 55 million years ago. Will global warming cause a mass extinction event? Will global warming cause a mass extinction event? � BraveNewClimate.com [...]

By: Moving forward with extinction risk predictions from climate change « ConservationBytes.com

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 20:38:03 +0000

[...] of the major problems with predicting how biodiversity might respond to climate change is the typical simplicity of single-species ‘envelope’ models – these models basically [...]

By: Climate change and human health - inequities demand win-win solutions « BraveNewClimate.com

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 17:19:23 +0000

[...] Top Posts Ethics and climate changeWhat if the sun got stuck?How long will Old King Coal reign? Part IIGrim scenarios on a 2 to 6 degrees celsius hotter EarthDr David Evans: born-again ‘alarmist’?Climate Change Q and A Seminar 4: Friday 19 Sept – Are the impacts of climate change being overstated?Dr Jennifer Marohasy ignores the climate scienceTarget atmospheric CO2 levels, not vague emissions reductionsSpot the recycled denial III – Prof Ian PlimerWill global warming cause a mass extinction event? [...]

By: Spot the recycled denial V – Prof Bob Carter « BraveNewClimate.com

Spot the recycled denial V – Prof Bob Carter « BraveNewClimate.com — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 02:21:05 +0000

[...] http://bravenewclimate.com/2008/08/14/will-global-warming-cause-a-mass-extinction-event/ [...]

By: Cost, not biodiversity, dictates decision to conserve « ConservationBytes.com

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:01:47 +0000

[...] attempt to take biodiversity, threat or land cost changes arising from climate change into account (see relevant post here), so some of the priorities are questionable. Related to this is the idea of latent risk (see [...]

By: Bernard J.

Bernard J. — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 13:22:21 +0000

Oops. Buggered up the XHTML.

At least you won’t miss that link!

By: Bernard J.

Bernard J. — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 13:18:33 +0000

Spangled Drongo. To the best of my knowledge I. holocyclus is pretty much restricted to the relatively warm and humid coastal seaboard of eastern Australia, and isn't on the ground (or in the trees!) in the Alpine areas. The only link that I have bookmarked is the one I use to explain the risk of tick bites to my field volunteers: There is a distribution map linked from this page. Perhaps the species has expanded its range (from what I can determine they seem to have been introduced to Tasmania), but tick ecology is not my forte. I doubt though that they would represent a significant bulwark against predation, for the MPP. As ever though, Google is our friend, if you want to pursue the matter.

By: spangled drongo

spangled drongo — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 11:10:18 +0000

Bernard J.
Can you find out if any of the ground dwelling wildlife in the Snowies [or nearby] still host the paralysis tick [Ixodes holocyclus]?
This tick is possibly the only thing standing between our ground dwellers and extinction. It is possibly the only parasite that works in favour of the prey rather than the predator.
I ask people when they extract ticks to “do it gently and put them back carefully”.
They don’t always feel so disposed.
Let’s hope that no innoculation for domestic animals or livestock is ever discovered or that will be a death sentence for wildlife.

By: spangled drongo

spangled drongo — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 08:06:33 +0000

Bernard J.
Thanks for that. The mountain pygmy possum is not in my territory but it has obviously been around for a few interglacials and they and the holocene have had temperatures well in excess of present ones.
Animals that survive warm summers can usually handle mild winters whereas feral cats would be a clear and present danger, I would imagine, for these animals. As certainly would dogs, dingoes and foxes.
I would certainly agree with you that human population invasion such as ski fields and overburning would impact on these animals.
Ticks BTW, were in the Aust Alps when Hume and Hovel walked to Port Phillip in 1824 [I seem to remember them being roundly cursed in their diaries] and if they are not there now helping the MPPs to survive then it must be colder now than it was then.
Nothofagus grow at high altitude in SEQ. Not sure how many types but the old Gondwanaland “Antarctic Beech” is not uncommon. Some reputedly 3000 years old, not far from me. [Distance wise, not age.]
I’ve found that feral cats are like most animals, if they need support to prosper they hang together, if they dont they often split up. I personally observe the neighbourhood domestic ferals meeting in groups in the rainforest and it is not hard to find colonies of a dozen wild ferals further west.
On the outskirts of some western towns you will also often find a mob of cats together. Many mature males won’t accept hierarchical pack structure and become loners and it’s probably not very relevant to their overall pestilence.
Barry has identified this possible mass extinction problem due to AGW, however I have to point out that it is going on right now as a result of doing nothing about these feral predators particularly in closer settled, very environmentally significant areas.

By: Bernard J.

Bernard J. — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:23:52 +0000

Spangled Drongo.

The feral cats that I have come across are most definitely not ‘pack’ animals. The adults usually only come together to mate, and the kittens bugger off as soon as they are able to look after themselves, especially the males.

As WotWot noted above, around abundant sources of food (such as garbage tips and dumpster areas) cats will congregate in loose communities that tolerate each other rather than working as a functioning pack unit, but this is a largely artificial situation.

Escaped domestics may have been conditioned to accept the company of other cats, but a true feral, in a non-urban environment, is not a tolerant beast.

The scars and abscesses from fights that I’ve seen on the cats I’ve caught attest to that.