How many species could go extinct from climate change? It depends on how hot it gets.

Two Kea birds, Arthurs Pass South Island New Zealand. The species is listed as threatened in that country and climate change is among the reasons their numbers are in danger.

To consider how climate change could cause some extinctions, imagine a tiny mountain bird that eats the berries of a particular mountain tree.

That tree can only grow at a specific elevation around the mountain, where it's evolved over millennia to thrive in that microclimate. As global temperatures rise, both the tree and the bird will be forced to rise too, tracking their microclimate as it moves uphill. But they can only go so far.

The July 2022 heatwave is happening when average world temperatures have risen by just over 1C from their pre-industrial levels.

We are living in the hottest period in 125,000 years, according to the UN's climate science body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

We know what is behind this - greenhouse gas emissions caused by our burning of fossil fuels like coal and gas. Concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere are at the highest level for two million years and rising, according to the IPCC.

If all the promises governments made at the UN COP26 climate conference in Glasgow last year are actually implemented then we're looking at temperatures rising by 2.4C by the end of the century.

But the bad news is that emissions of CO2 continue to increase. Without big cuts by 2030 we could see temperatures go even higher. Perhaps as much as 4C by the end of the century, scientists predict.

Human Government, through its laws, and its enforcement of them, is both a major cause of and a potential solution to the Extinction of Species. Human Government needs to change its laws, and enforce them. We can save species in the short term by creating and enlargening Nature Reserves and Protected areas and legislating against killing any species within those protected aeras, and enforcing that legislation absolutely. After all Extinction is Forever! 

This is only a short term "solution", as it does not address Human Overpopulation, Human Overdevelopment and Human Pollution - the major causes of decline and loss and extinction of species and habitat.  Only Humans together can make the necessary laws to preserve Nature - which is what must be done to ensure our own survival as well as the survival of our Human Civilization.

Humanity depends on Nature - on habitat for food availablity, pollution control, water purification, and agriculture; on other species for food availability, pollution control and pollination; on the atmospheric and oceanic currents for temperature control and freshwater generation and distribution; on atmosphic layers to protect us from cosmic radiation; and much, much more.

We could never afford to do what Nature does for us - we don't have the capacity or ability, and it would cost us thousands or millions times more than the total wealth of the planet - if we could.

Furthermore, human engineering, rather than replacing Nature, only causes more pollution, which makes the situation worse.

Human Pollution is killing the natural world and is a major cause of Extinction of Species. Human Pollution is directly related to Human Overpopulation and Human Overdevelopment. There are too many people on the planet for Nature to be able to sustainably heal itself and handle Human Pollution.