Britain’s climate zones are shifting by up to five kilometres (3.1 miles) a year because of rising temperatures – with potentially catastrophic impacts for wildlife, says a new report ‘Adapting to Climate Heating’ by the charity Rewilding Britain. The shift – due to human-caused climate heating, and hundreds of times faster than the country’s natural climate warming at the end of the last ice age – is set to outpace many species’ ability to adapt and adjust their ranges.
But the research also shows that a massive increase in restoring and connecting species-rich habitats across at least 30 percent of Britain’s land and sea by 2030 could help save a fifth of species from climate-driven habitat loss, decline or extinction. The charity is calling for the creation of core rewilding areas across at least five percent of Britain, with a rich mosaic of nature-friendly land and marine uses across another 25 percent of the country.
The estimated shift in Britain’s climate zones is part of a pattern in which such zones across the northern hemisphere are moving northwards, and upwards in elevation, at an unprecedented rate. Rewilding Britain’s calculations are based on an analysis of existing research by leading experts.
For many plants and animals, surviving such rapid change will partly depend on their ability to move their ranges to more hospitable areas. Those that can’t move across land or sea at roughly the same rate as their climate zone are likely to decline and be at increased extinction risk.
“Nature is our life support system and it’s at risk. We urgently need to kick-start a new era of rewilding and nature restoration to match the growing tsunami of climate heating and species extinction,” said Rebecca Wrigley, Rewilding Britain’s Chief Executive.
“We can only thrive if nature thrives, so we need to think big and act wild, with radical change in how we manage land and sea to halt and reverse biodiversity declines, and tackle climate breakdown.”
You can read the report at: https://www.rewildingbritain.org.uk/news-and-views/research-and-reports/adapting-to-climate-heating
Find out more about Rewinding Britain at: https://www.rewildingbritain.org.uk/about-us
Source of copy with thanks to Rewilding Britain.
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