This Is Probably The First Mammal Extinct Because Of Man-Made Climate Change

Well, world, we may have reached an incredibly depressing milestone. For the first time on record, a mammal species has probably gone extinct as a direct result of human-caused climate change. The Bramble Cay melomys is, or was, a small rodent that lived on an island off the coast of Australia. Scientists declared it extinct in a comprehensive report published this month. The rat lived on Bramble Cay, a small island at the northern end of the Great Barrier Reef that sits only 10 feet above sea level at its highest point, according to National Geographic. In 1978, there were hundreds of the little creatures on Bramble Cay, but as the portion of the island sitting above the high-tide mark has shrunk over the years, so has the amount of habitat available for rodents. In 2004, Bramble Cay provided about 5.4 acres of habitat for the critters. By 2014, rising tides had depleted that area to only about 0.16 acres. That’s a 97 percent loss of habitat in just a decade. Those rising tides are the result of two major factors. The first is “severe meteorological events” like La Nina. The authors of this month's report, who include researchers from Australia's Department of Environment and Heritage Protection and the University of Queensland, note that dramatic events like this have "been linked to climate change, specifically the increase in global mean temperature." But extreme weather events aren’t the only factor. Rising sea levels, which the r...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - Category: Science Source Type: news