The Pacific Walrus, the polar bear, the Atlantic salmon, the Mexican spotted owl – they’re all there at a new website created by the Center for Biological Diversity profiling the many species threatened with extinction as a result of climate change.
The interactive website, 350 Reasons We Need to Get to 350: 350 Species Threatened by Global Warming, describes threatened species in every region of the United States and across the globe. Users can find species’ descriptions and photos through an interactive regional map, and use a portal to search species according to taxonomic groups.
The project coincided with 350.org, the Bill McKibben-led international campaign launched on October 24 to promote the goal of reducing global concentrations of atmospheric CO2 to no more than 350 parts per million. The goal is seen in many quarters as unrealistic given the trajectory of global greenhouse gas emissions (it’s now at 387 ppm) and the grinding progress of international climate negotiations.
Nevertheless, the Center for Biological Diversity’s new website offers a “family album” of species struggling to survive as their habitats warm, melt, and dry up, and as familiar seasonal rhythms shift toward a warmer world.
The Center points to peer-reviewed studies that collectively suggest that 35 percent of species could be committed to extinction by 2050 if today’s rate of greenhouse gas emissions continue.
“Many of these extinctions can be prevented if emissions are cut,” the site says.



