Environmental thresholds for mass-extinction events

Abstract

While the global-average temperatures are rapidly rising, more researchers have been shifting their focus towards the past mass-extinction events in order to show the relations between temperature increase and temperature thresholds which might trigger extinction of species. These temperature and mass-extinction relation graphs are found practical by conservationists and policy makers to determine temperature threshold values to set climate targets. Unfortunately, this approach might be dangerous, because mass-extinction events (MEEs) are related to many environmental parameters and temperature is only one of them. Herein we provide a more comprehensive evaluation of the environmental thresholds required to sustain a habitable planet. Besides, we suggest actions within the sustainable-development goals (SDGs) to observe those critical environmental parameters, in order to assure having an inhabitable planet for the current living species.

Keywords

• Abrupt climate change
• Mass-extinction events
• Sustainable development goals (SDGs)