SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Climate Change May Mean End of Giant Panda
'We're standing on the edge of a mass extinction event'
Nov 12, 2012
Climate change could mean the extinction of the giant panda by the end of the century, a study published Sunday warns.
But ecologists hope that the pandas' plight might finally be a "wake-up call" that convinces skeptics of the dire situation.
Among the most endangered species in the world, the pandas eat almost exclusively bamboo, which is particularly susceptible to climate change, according to the study published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change.
The study focused on the Qinling Mountains in Shaanxi Province, The Guardian reports, which is home to about 275 pandas--or 17 percent of the entire wild panda population.
The mountains are surrounded by developed areas, which blocks their access to areas where bamboo is not as affected by global warming.
"We will need proactive actions to protect the current giant panda habitats," lead researcher Mao-Ning Tuanmu, from Yale University, told The Guardian. "We need time to look at areas that might become panda habitat in the future, and to think now about maintaining connectivity of areas of good panda habitat and habitat for other species."
Scientists said conservation efforts could still focus on protecting areas that have a better chance of supplying pandas with food, and natural "bridges" could be created to help pandas escape the mountains.
"I think probably there is hope, but only if we take active measures at once," Jack Liu, an ecologist at Michigan State University in East Lansing, told Discovery magazine. "If we don't, then probably not. It really depends on what we will do."
"Most biologists think we're standing on the edge of a mass extinction event," Stanford ecologist Terry Root told Discovery. "If pandas can bring attention to that, it's absolutely fantastic. This is a horrible thing to say, but I think this is a wonderful study because what it's doing is showing us how we need to actually understand what we're doing to the climate, because we're not just doing it to the climate. It's going on all over the place, we just haven't noticed it. Actually noticing it in an iconic species like the panda is super unfortunate, but maybe it will get people to understand what's going on. It's a wake-up call."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Climate change could mean the extinction of the giant panda by the end of the century, a study published Sunday warns.
But ecologists hope that the pandas' plight might finally be a "wake-up call" that convinces skeptics of the dire situation.
Among the most endangered species in the world, the pandas eat almost exclusively bamboo, which is particularly susceptible to climate change, according to the study published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change.
The study focused on the Qinling Mountains in Shaanxi Province, The Guardian reports, which is home to about 275 pandas--or 17 percent of the entire wild panda population.
The mountains are surrounded by developed areas, which blocks their access to areas where bamboo is not as affected by global warming.
"We will need proactive actions to protect the current giant panda habitats," lead researcher Mao-Ning Tuanmu, from Yale University, told The Guardian. "We need time to look at areas that might become panda habitat in the future, and to think now about maintaining connectivity of areas of good panda habitat and habitat for other species."
Scientists said conservation efforts could still focus on protecting areas that have a better chance of supplying pandas with food, and natural "bridges" could be created to help pandas escape the mountains.
"I think probably there is hope, but only if we take active measures at once," Jack Liu, an ecologist at Michigan State University in East Lansing, told Discovery magazine. "If we don't, then probably not. It really depends on what we will do."
"Most biologists think we're standing on the edge of a mass extinction event," Stanford ecologist Terry Root told Discovery. "If pandas can bring attention to that, it's absolutely fantastic. This is a horrible thing to say, but I think this is a wonderful study because what it's doing is showing us how we need to actually understand what we're doing to the climate, because we're not just doing it to the climate. It's going on all over the place, we just haven't noticed it. Actually noticing it in an iconic species like the panda is super unfortunate, but maybe it will get people to understand what's going on. It's a wake-up call."
Climate change could mean the extinction of the giant panda by the end of the century, a study published Sunday warns.
But ecologists hope that the pandas' plight might finally be a "wake-up call" that convinces skeptics of the dire situation.
Among the most endangered species in the world, the pandas eat almost exclusively bamboo, which is particularly susceptible to climate change, according to the study published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change.
The study focused on the Qinling Mountains in Shaanxi Province, The Guardian reports, which is home to about 275 pandas--or 17 percent of the entire wild panda population.
The mountains are surrounded by developed areas, which blocks their access to areas where bamboo is not as affected by global warming.
"We will need proactive actions to protect the current giant panda habitats," lead researcher Mao-Ning Tuanmu, from Yale University, told The Guardian. "We need time to look at areas that might become panda habitat in the future, and to think now about maintaining connectivity of areas of good panda habitat and habitat for other species."
Scientists said conservation efforts could still focus on protecting areas that have a better chance of supplying pandas with food, and natural "bridges" could be created to help pandas escape the mountains.
"I think probably there is hope, but only if we take active measures at once," Jack Liu, an ecologist at Michigan State University in East Lansing, told Discovery magazine. "If we don't, then probably not. It really depends on what we will do."
"Most biologists think we're standing on the edge of a mass extinction event," Stanford ecologist Terry Root told Discovery. "If pandas can bring attention to that, it's absolutely fantastic. This is a horrible thing to say, but I think this is a wonderful study because what it's doing is showing us how we need to actually understand what we're doing to the climate, because we're not just doing it to the climate. It's going on all over the place, we just haven't noticed it. Actually noticing it in an iconic species like the panda is super unfortunate, but maybe it will get people to understand what's going on. It's a wake-up call."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.
To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good.
News & Opinion
Trending
Common Dreams, Inc. Founded 1997. Registered 501(c3) Non-Profit
Privacy Policy