At the United Nations Climate Conference in Dubai, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a major tracker of global biodiversity, reported alarming patterns in its latest Red List of Threatened Species.
Climate change is compounding the biodiversity catastrophe by creating more unfriendly conditions for many species and hastening the alarming demise of plants and animals around the world.
Several species, including salmon and turtles, were flagged as vulnerable in the report. While Atlantic salmon is not yet extinct, its population decreased by about a quarter between 2006 and 2020, giving it a "near threatened" classification. Dams, water pollution, and climate change are all contributing to their problems. There are rays of light, however, as salmon counts increased in Maine last year.
Over 44,000 species are threatened with extinction, according to the IUCN's Red List, which currently has information on 157,000 species (7,000 more than the previous year). This is approximately 2,000 more than the previous year. Climate change has been identified as a major cause of the deterioration of conditions for around 6,700 species on the verge of extinction.
The Central South Pacific and East Pacific green turtles are among the species at risk as a result of climate change. Rising sea levels are limiting turtle hatchings while warming waters are affecting their seagrass food supply.
The update also includes the first thorough assessment of freshwater fish species, which revealed that one-quarter of them, or over 3,000 species, are endangered. Climate change, pollution, and overfishing all pose serious challenges to these species.
Amphibians, including frogs and salamanders, are especially fragile, with 41% of species threatened. These organisms are "climate captives," unable to avoid the immediate consequences of climate change, such as rising temperatures and drought.
Despite the bleak picture, there was some good news for two antelope species, including the scimitar-horned oryx, which was previously declared extinct in the wild but is now classified as endangered thanks to conservation efforts in Chad.
Grethel Aguilar, the IUCN's director-general, stressed the critical need for human action to protect biodiversity. She urged the phase-out of fossil fuels, a difficult issue in the COP28 talks, saying, "Nature is here to help us, so let us help it back."
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