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Climate Change and Biodiversity (January 9, 2004, One)

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Program Summary

Going, going, gone. A recent study published in “Nature” predicts that the current rate of climate change will lead to the extinction or endangerment of 15–37 percent of the world’s plant and animal species by 2050, the largest mass extinction since the disappearance of the dinosaurs. Global warming is causing such rapid habitat change that thousands of species will simply be unable to adapt; thousands more will be left stranded in small habitat pockets with nowhere else to go.

Ira’s guests stress that immediate action must be taken—the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Concentrated efforts to switch to cleaner forms of energy and technology could save up to 20 percent of the threatened species. They also warn that the extinction figures could be far higher due to habitat destruction by humans, a factor that the study did not examine.

Guests

Chris Thomas, professor of conservation biology at the University of Leeds School of Biology in Leeds, United Kingdom

Stuart Pimm, extraordinary professor of the conservation ecology research unit at the
University of Pretoria in Pretoria, South Africa; Doris Duke professor of conservation ecology at the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina

Related Links and Resources

Nature.com, January 8, 2004: “Feeling the Heat: Climate Change and Biodiversity Loss”
United Nations Environment Program World Climate Monitoring Centre: Biodiversity and Climate Change
UNEP Convention on Biological Diversity: Biodiversity and Climate Change

For Discussion:

• How is global warming affecting habitats around the world?
• What are the consequences of losing a third of Earth’s species?
• What must be done to slow the rate of global warming?
• If climate change continues at its current rate, what do you think life on Earth will be like in 2100?

Activities

Too hot to trot. Newspapers in Education offers Tracking Climate Changes, a well-organized and thoughtful tour through two in-depth, online exhibits at England’s Science Museum and San Francisco’s Exploratorium. Detailed information is offered about the nature of global warming, its causes, effects, solutions, how scientists study it, and what they predict.

Hot enough for you? The Environmental Protection Agency’s Global Warming Kids Page is a terrific, comprehensive site about climate and global warming. Sections on climate history, climate science, solutions to global warming, and more are enriched with games, animations, links to other sites, and materials for teachers.

The weather outside is frightful. Riverdeep’s Global Warming Lab offers an interactive experience. Students listen to scientists’ perspectives on global warming, learn the tools of the trade, analyze changes in their neck of the woods, and make predictions. They are also encouraged to submit their opinions on the subject. QuickTime and SimPlayer are needed, both of which are free to download. Riverdeep’s Teaching the News: Warming the Food Web specifically discusses the effect of global warming on animal behavior. Students are divided into “believers” and “non-believers” for a mock debate on the existence of global warming.

Alone on the range. What would living on Earth be like if most of its species disappeared? National Geographic’s lesson plan, Why Preserve Biodiversity?, looks at the problem of endangerment and extinction and discusses preservation methods. Have students write a description of life on Earth in 2100.

Use the search box below to perform a Google search within any of the specifc sites or general domains mentioned in this Activities section.

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