Climate Change To Drive Some Butterflies To Extinction By 2050: Scientists

Global warming caused climate change threatens six species of Britain's Butterflies with extinction, scientists have warned.

The ringlet, the speckled wood, the large skipper, the large white, the small white and the green-veined white butterfly are common species today according to The New York Times. But a new study based on weather data, climate change models and butterfly data obtained from 129 sites warns that by 2050 these six species could disappear from dry areas of England.

 "Under RCP8.5, which is 'business as usual' emissions, widespread drought-sensitive butterfly population extinctions could occur as early as 2050," said researchers wrote in journal Nature Climate Change. A RCP or Representative Concentration Pathway is a possible scenario for future carbon emissions.

According to BBC, the study's authors claim that by restoring connections between butterflies habitats could help improve the situation. Human activities like agriculture have fragmented habitats and under less extreme warming conditions, connectivity can boost numbers.

"By managing landscapes and particularly reducing habitat fragmentation, the probability of persistence until mid-century improves from around zero to between 6 and 42 percent," authors said while adding that increasing survival to 2100 is possible only under low climate change conditions.