350 Reasons We Need to Get to 350

350 Reasons We Need to Get to 350 350 Species Threatened by Global Warming AN INTERACTIVE INSTALLATION BY THE CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY spotlighting 350 species that THE CLIMATE CRISIS threatens with extinction — 350 reasons why we must reduce carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere to 350 parts per million or less. A project marking the International Day of Climate Action, October 24, 2009, and the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, December 7-18, 2009. 350.biologicaldiversity.org 350 REASONS WE NEED TO GET TO 350: 350 SpECIES THREATENED BY GLOBAL WARMING AN INTERACTIVE INSTALLATION BY THE CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY Spotlighting 350 species that the climate crisis threatens with extinction — 350 reasons why we must reduce carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere to 350 parts per million or less. A project marking the International Day of Climate Action, October 24, 2009, and the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, December 7-18, 2009. 350.Biologicaldiversity.org Compiled by the Climate Law Institute of the Center for Biological Diversity Research and Writing: Rose Braz, Shaye Wolf, Brian Nowicki, Ileene Anderson, Maria Seiferle, Cassie Holmgren, Erica Etelsen, Peter Galvin, Kierán Suckling Editing: Anna Mirocha, Lydia Millet, Julie Miller Project Design: Bill Haskins, Julie Miller, Anna Mirocha Photo Editing: Melissa Buchmann, Maria Seiferle, Julie Miller, Cassie Holmgren 350 Species Mosaic Graphic: Cassie Holmgren Project Outreach: Barbara George, Tara Cornelisse, Erica Etelson The Center for Biological Diversity thanks all the photographers who contributed species images in support of this project, as well as all of the citizen activists who submitted their own images on behalf of both human life and the other animals and plants that need us to get to 350. CENTER for BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY • 351 California St., Ste. 600 • San Francisco, CA 94104 • 415.436.9682 Introduction tmospheric carbon dioxide currently stands at about 387 parts per million, and the science is clear: We must reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide to 350 parts per million or less to avoid climate catastrophe. Leading Aclimate scientists who have called on world leaders to establish a target of 350 parts per million or less for CO2 reduction include Rajendra K. Pachauri, Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and Dr. James Hansen, Chief Climate Scientist at NASA. Achieving that target will require the United States to cut its greenhouse gas emissions to 45 percent or more below 1990 levels by 2020. Peer-reviewed studies have concluded that 35 percent of species could be committed to extinction by 2050 if current emissions trajectories continue. But many of these extinctions can be prevented if greenhouse gas emissions are cut. To document the devastating effects of global warming on wildlife — and to dramatically illustrate the need to take action now — the Center for Biological Diversity has created a Web-based interactive installation profiling 350 species whose future survival depends on how we meet the challenge of reducing emissions today. In fact, our inventory of 350 species includes one who stands to be tragically impoverished by the loss of so many others, but who holds the key to preventing climate catastrophe: ourselves, Homo sapiens sapiens. The Web installation, titled 350 Reasons We Need to Get to 350: 350 Species Threatened by Global Warming, launched in tandem with the International Day of Climate Action October 24, 2009, and the project’s interactive elements have amassed public response that now travels to Copenhagen for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in December 2009. We’ve collected that citizen response in these pages, in the shape of more than 2,000 signatures on a petition to President Barack Obama — asking him to ensure that any new U.S. climate legislation or any international agreement negotiated in Copenhagen includes the goal of reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide to 350 parts per million or less — and hundreds of photos from Center for Biological Diversity supporters, sending world leaders the 350 message on behalf of individual species threatened with extinction due to global warming. Finally, we’ve included here a sampling of the plants and animals profiled by our Web installation itself, an extensive resource that will continue to evolve as part of our Center for Biological Diversity spokesbear Frostpaw helps kick off Climate Law Institute’s fight to protect life on the 350 Reasons campaign. Earth — from polar bears to pteropods — from the climate crisis. 350 Reasons We Need to Get to 350: The Web Site ur project Web site inventories 350 species around the globe — large and small, iconic and unknown — whose very existence is threatened by global warming. From polar bears in Alaska, monk seals in Hawaii, OAtlantic salmon in the Northeast, and sea turtles in Florida to corals throughout the world, each brief profile gives a snapshot of what mechanisms are being triggered to make a species’ food web collapse or habitat become less livable. Descriptions and photos of the 350 plants and animals are searchable through an interactive regional map or a taxonomic portal. Following is a small sampling of the entries found at 350.biologicaldiversity.org. Arctic fox (Alopex lagopus or Vulpes lagopus) Range: Arctic regions of Europe, Asia, North America, Greenland, and Iceland The Arctic fox is well adapted to survive in some of the coldest places on the planet — the Arctic tundra and Arctic sea ice. A slumbering Arctic fox in winter will wrap its long, bushy tail around its body for added warmth; the fox’s feet are covered in dense fur to insulate against the cold and provide traction on the ice. As temperatures rise, the Arctic fox’s tundra and sea-ice habitat is shrinking, its lemming prey are becoming less abundant, and it faces increased competition and displacement by the red fox, which is moving northward as temperatures warm and trees invade the tundra. Panamanian golden frog (Atelopus zeteki) Range: Endemic to west-central Panama Ancient Panama legend promised luck to anyone who spotted the Panamanian golden frog — one of the world’s harlequin frog species — in the wild. Unfortunately, that isn’t possible today. In 2006, the frog-killing chytridiomycosis disease hit the species’ native home, the clear streams of the volcanic crater of El Valle de Antón. This small, brightly colored frog — whose populations were already under pressure due to collectors and habitat loss — was decimated. Similar species still hop around in Panama’s mountain forests, but now the only remaining Panamanian golden frogs are those bred in captivity at a handful of zoos. The neotropical harlequin frogs in the genus Atelopus have declined more catastrophically than any other amphibian genus. Of 113 species, at least 30 have vanished in the past 25 years, and the populations of another 12 species have declined by 50 percent or more. Rising temperatures from climate change are thought to have played a role in these declines by promoting outbreaks of the infectious chytridiomycosis disease. Humphead wrasse (Cheilinus undulatus) Range: Throughout the Indo-Pacific oceans With sumptuous, fleshy lips and a bulbous, protruding forehead, the humphead wrasse is an unforgettable fish. However, this enormous, colorful coral-reef dweller is slow to reproduce, making it vulnerable to overfishing. The species’ total population has dropped by at least half in just 30 years. With concern mounting over sinking humphead wrasse populations, the trade in this species became regulated by the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species — but the wrasse is still in danger. This fish depends on corals throughout its life. Tiny larval wrasse actively select branching hard and soft corals as their new home. Juveniles are found among thickets of dense branching corals, while adult wrasse inhabit a reef’s outer slopes and steep drop-offs. The global warming- and ocean acidification-induced die-off of coral reefs is leaving coral-dependent fishes like the humphead wrasse without a home. Southern rockhopper penguin (Eudyptes chrysocome) Range: Southern Ocean Islands The quintessential crested penguin, the southern rockhopper penguin was originally named for its propensity for jumping over obstacles. Like all penguins, the southern rockhopper faces a dire and immediate threat in the form of climate change. Scientists have linked increases in ocean temperature with large-scale declines in southern rockhopper penguin populations: an 80-percent decline on the Falkland Islands, a 60- percent decline on Marion Island, and 50- to 94-percent declines on three islands off New Zealand. The continued warming and acidification of the Southern Ocean inhabited by the southern rockhopper penguin threaten to diminish its food supply, posing a profound threat to this species’ survival. Quino checkerspot butterfly (Euphydryas editha quino) Range: Riverside and San Diego counties, California, and scattered areas in Baja California, Mexico Once one of the most common California butterflies, historically the Quino checkerspot butterfly numbered in the millions and could be found throughout California and Mexico. Habitat destruction and rapid climate change together have severely reduced this butterfly’s numbers. With increasing temperatures and drier conditions, the butterfly’s range has undergone a large-scale shift northward and upward in elevation, as populations have gone extinct in the southern 100 miles of the

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