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| CLIMATE CHANGE | |
 May 20, 2004 
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A team of international ecologists using a computer model to predict the effects of climate change say as many as 1 million species could be on the way to extinction by the year 2050. One of the study's authors, Lee Hannah, and environmental experts Daniel Botkin and Patrick Michaels take your questions. |
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Climate change is one of the most persistent and complicated environmental issues. Scientists often have vastly different takes on the research done so far and what the results may mean. Lee Hannah is a senior fellow at Conservation International who helped write a study that says the climate changes expected to occur by 2050 may eventually lead to the extinction of as many as 1 million species.
The study, published in the Jan. 8 issue of the journal Nature, created a stir. Daniel Botkin agrees global warming will have an effect on species but says the study did not take into account certain factors such as species adaptability. He taught environmental science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, wrote a book about forest ecology and developed a computer program to predict growth patterns in forests over many years. Patrick Michaels, another active participate in the climate change debate, is a research professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia and visiting scientist with the Marshall Institute in Washington, D.C. The three environmental experts take your questions about the study and climate change in general. |
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The
team said the gradual warming of the Earth's atmosphere is causing certain
species' habitats to move or shrink, which could lead to the species'
decline.
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