Posted on 09/27/2012 9:32:44 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Habitats such as coral reefs or the Arctic region were among the most vulnerable to global warming, scientists said at a conference in Lillehammer, south Norway, organized by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). Almost 200 governments agreed in 2010 to a goal of limiting global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times, seen as a threshold for dangerous changes such as droughts, floods, desertification and rising sea levels. "At 2C you have impacts. The idea that 2C is a safe level doesn't really hold up," said Jeff Price, coordinator of the Wallace Initiative, an international group seeking to model the effects of climate change on 50,000 types of plant and animals. "And when you start moving beyond 2C the impacts on biodiversity start rapidly increasing through much of the world," he said. Greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels are the main cause of warming, according to a U.N. scientific panel. Price said Colombian coffee plantations, for instance, would have to be shifted to higher altitudes and onto more shaded northern slopes as temperatures rose. "It's going to require wholesale movements of coffee plantations in Colombia," he said. That could put coffee more into competition with habitats for rare tropical animals and plants. FOXES, LEMMINGS In Scandinavia, the Arctic fox is among animals under pressure since climate change is reducing the availability of its main prey, the lemming. And red foxes, bigger than their Arctic cousins, are moving north as temperatures warm.
(Excerpt) Read more at in.reuters.com ...
Reuters - the new Pravda
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