Two-thirds of California plants at risk
The LA Times (“Climate change threatens two-thirds of California’s unique plants, study says”) and Discovery News (“Calif. Plants Squeezed by Climate Change”) both have articles up referring to a new study showing the risk California plants could experience with projected severe climate changes.
As the Times puts it,
Two-thirds of California’s unique plants, some 2,300 species that grow nowhere else in the world, could be wiped out across much of their current geographic ranges by the end of the century due to rising temperatures and changing rainfall patterns, according to a new study.
The species that cannot migrate fast enough to higher altitudes or cooler coastal areas could face extinction due to greenhouse gas emissions that are heating the planet, according to researchers.
And of course, the animals that depend on those plants (not to mention the animals who depend on those animals) will be affected as well.